Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/359



NO1KRALI, 317 139,735; (5) manufacturing and industrial class, 33,251; (6) indefinite and non-productive class, comprising male children and 9960 general labourers, 210,961. Agriculture. -Rice forms in Noakhali, as elsewhere in Bengal, the staple of cultivation. It consists of two great crops, the bus or early rice, and the man or winter rice, each of which is divided into two classes, and again sub-divided into many varieties. The first class of áus rice is sown in March and April, and reaped in July and August; the second description is sown in June and July, and reaped in October and November. The first kind of síman rice is sown in March and April, transplanted in June and July, and reaped in November and December, the second kind, sown in July and August, is also transplanted, and is reaped in the latter part of November and throughout December. Of these four rice crops, 53 well-defined varieties are named. Amongst other crops grown in the District may be inentioned pulses, mustard and other oil-seeds, cocoa-nuts, chillies, areca nut, and a little betel-leaf, turmeric, sugar-cane (a garden crop), and jute for domestic consumption. Areca-nut is the most valuable product of the north of the District, especially in Lakshmipur thání. According to an official estimate made in 1873–74, out of the then total area of the District (996,480 acres), 747,360 acres were devoted to the cultivation of food-grains. Roughly speaking, a fair out-turn from an acre of land is about 171 cwts. of paddy or unhusked rice, or about half that quantity of husked rice. The value varies according to the quality of rice grown; the best description of a man paddy being worth, on an average, from 2s, to zs. 8d. per cwt., and úus paddy from is. 4d. to 2s. per cwt. A second crop is obtained from nearly all good land, and the average out-turn of an acre of such land would be about 27 cwts. of paddy, valued at £3, 1os. Wages have more than doubled within the past twenty years. Agricultural day - labourers now receive 6d. to 8d. a day, or as much as is. a day at harvest time, besides two meals from their employers; ordinary coolies are paid all the year round at the rate of three men for the rupee, or 8d. a day per man; smiths, carpenters, and bricklayers are seldom paid at a daily rate, but by the job. Prices of food-grains have also risen, but there is no evidence to show whether this rise has kept even pace with the increase in the rate of wages. The average price of the best cleaned rice during the years 1870–73 was 6s. 2d. per cwt., and of common cleaned rice, 4s. id. per cwt. In 1882-S3 the average price of common rice was 4s. id., and in 1983-84, 5S. 5d, per cwt. In the latter year, prices ruled exce high, owing to a less than average crop on the higher lands, caused by deficient rainfall.