Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/331



VILGIRI HILLS. 319 6s. 4d. ; salt, &s. 3d.; and sugar, £3. Coffee was 6d. and tea is. 10$d. per lb. Cinchona sold at 3s. 1d. per lb. The live stock of the District comprises — cows, 9528; bullocks, 8776; buffaloes, 8640 ; horses, 985; ponies, 527; donkeys, 226; sheep, 948; goats, 972; pigs, 60: dead stock-ploughs, 4657; and carts, 485. A plough bullock costs £2, 10s.; and a sheep, 6s. 3d. Carts can be hired for is. a day. In early traditions of the country, the evidence of the gudu or manorial fee paid to the Todas by the imnigrant agricultural races who have settled in the country (a gudu paid, even by Government, for the occupation of the European settlements on the hills), and the researches of the officers early connected with the administration of the District,-all point to the fact that the nomadic race of Todas were the immemorial and acknowledged owners of the hill plateau, over every part of which they pastured and still pasture, except where occupied, their large herds of buffaloes according to the season. The English rule, however, found the cultivable valley's and hillsides on the east and south-the more genial tracts of the hills—more or less com pletely occupied by villages of inmigrant races, who carried on the rude cultivation of dry grains within their rural limits. Much as was the case with hill tribes throughout Southern India, wide areas were occupied, and extensive fallows necessarily the rule. These agricultural villages paid gudu to the Todas, and a moderate village tribute for this cultivation to the State, from time to time. Conditions were not much altered, sare as respects punctuality of payment and more rigid assessment of extended cultivation, during the first half-century of English rule. Ariyathri settlement has since been gradually extended to the village landholders on the hills. All land within each village, held exclusively, is entered in the individual patta or notice of demand, with its assigned assessment, and must be relinquished unless paid for each year, subject to sale in case of retention and final default. The Waste Land Rules were introduced in 1863, with the object of facilitating the acquisition of land for plantation purposes and the like. The block of land selected by the applicant is, after three months' advertisement, and after demarcation and survey, sold to the highest bidder, whoever he may be. The assessment-8 ánnás (Is.) per acre on grass, and 2 rupees ( s.) on forest—is payable after three years in the Wainád, and five years on the plateau, when the land is taken up for the cultivation of special products, such as tea, coffee, and cinchona. Such lands are redeemable in fee-simple by a single payment of twenty-five times the assessment, a privilege which does not extend to land occupied under the old rules and without auction. The local Government, when sanctioning the introduction of a revenue settlement into the District in March 1881, directed the