Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/423



NOIGONG DISTRICT. 411 vegetables, oil, salt, some water plants and acid fruits, and also a little potash or alkali, obtained by burning plantains. As regards occupation, the Census of 1881 returned the male population of Nowgong District under the following six main headings :(1) Official and professional class, 771; (2) domestic class, 360 ; (3) commercial class, including merchants, traders, carriers, etc., 1684 ; (4) agricultural and pastoral class, including gardeners, 92,402 ; (5) industrial class, including all manufacturers and artisans, 181; (6) indefinite and non-productive class, comprising general labourers and male children, 63,452 Agriculture, etc.—The staple crop throughout the District is rice, which supplies two main harvests. (1) The sáli or lání is sown about June in low-lying lands, transplanted in the following month, and reaped in December. This furnishes the finest grain and the larger portion of the food supply. (2) The dus is sown on comparatively high lands about March, and reaped about July, leaving the field ready for a second or cold-weather crop of oil-sceds or pulses. A third variety of báo or long-stemmed rice is grown to some extent in marshes and along the banks of rivers. The area under rice cultivation has increased by about one-third within the past five years. The only other cereal is Indian corn, grown by the Míkirs on their forest clearings. Miscellaneous crops include mustard grown as an oil-seed, several varieties of pulses, sugar-cane, jute, rhea or China grass, pán or betel-leaf, and tobacco. Cotton is cultivated by the Míkirs. The Revenue Survey of 1872 returned only 244,315 acres under cultivation or one-ninth of the total area. By 1883-84 the cultivated area had increased to 291,069 acres, of which 32,582 acres produced two crops annually. The crop area was thus sub-divided-Rice, 185,132 acres; other food-grains, 15,716 acres; oil-seeds, 41,244 acres; sugar-cane, 4663 acres; cotton, 3846 acres; coffee, 100 acres; tea, 10,786 acres; miscellaneous, 29,582 acres, of which 14,174 acres were under food, and 15,408 acres under non-food crops. Manure, in the form of cowdung, is used only for tobacco and sugar-cane. Irrigation is commonly practised by the aboriginal cultivators, who divert the water from the hill streams by means of artificial channels. The principle of fallow land is acknowledged in the maxim that áus land cannot be kept continuously under crops for more than three years. The abundance of spare land on all sides permits the cultivator to abandon his fields for a new clearing, as soon as their natural fertility becomes impaired. Government is the immediate landlord of the whole soil, and grants leases direct to the cultivators at the following rates of rent:For bastú or homestead land, 6s. an acre ; rupit or low rice land, 3s. 9d. an acre; faringhátí or high land, 3s. an acre. The average out-turn from an acre of rupit land is estimated at about 18 cwts. of sálí