Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/148



136 NADIYA. crops, one sown in April or May and reaped in August or Septeniber, and the other sown in October and reaped in July. The finest dye is obtained from the spring sowings, which also cover the largest area. Though rice covers by far the larger portion of the cultivated land, second or cold-weather crops of pulses, oil-seeds and wheat, grown on áus land, are more common in Nadiya than in any other District of Eastern Bengal. As a matter of fact, enough rice is not grown in the District to satisfy the local demand, which is met by importation from the south. In some parts, especially in the Sub-division of Chuádángá, the cultivation of chillies or long-pepper forms an important feature in the rural industry, as the peasant relies upon this special crop to pay the rent of his other fields. The out-turn of rice per acre varies, according to the kind of land, from 41 cwts. to 13 cwts., valued at from 12s. to £1, 16s. The extent of cultivable spare land in the District is very small. Irrigation is only practised in the event of a deficiency in the rainfall, and is effected by means of small watercourses, the cost being estimated at about 4s. 6d. an acre. Manure, consisting of cow-dung or oil-cake, is used for lands not adjacent to rivers, nor watered by them. The rent of rice land ranges from 35. to 7s. 6d. an acre, the rent of other kinds of land varies in different parts of the District, and according to the crops produced. Rents of all kinds have risen greatly since the Permanent Settlement in 1793, being now in many parts of the District double what they then were, and everywhere 30 per cent. higher. A well-to-do husbandman can afford to spend from £1, 1os. to £1, 125. a month on the comfortable living of an average-sized household. Small cultivators are generally in debt. About five-eighths of the husbandmen in Nadiya District hold their lands with a right of occupancy, but almost all of them are liable to enhancement of rent. No class of small proprietors exists who own, occupy, and cultivate their hereditary lands without either a superior landlord above, or a sub-tenant or labourer under them. There is a tendency in the District towards the growth of a distinct class of day-labourers, neither possessing nor renting land. These men, termed krishans, when employed in agriculture, are paid sonetimes in money and sometimes in land, but do not receive any share of the crops. Women are seldon employed in agricultural labour, but children are engaged to look after cattle. Wages have doubled during the last twenty years; coolies and agricultural day-labourers at present earn from 4 d. to 6d. a day. The price of the best cleaned rice is 13s. 8d. a cwt., and of the common quality, 5s. a cut. A large proportion of the cultivable area of Nadiya is held on uthandi tenures,—that is to say, without leases and for a single season only. The general custom is for the husbandman to get verbal permission to cultivate a certain amount of land in a particular