Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/424



412 NOWGONG DISTRICT. paddy or unhusked rice; from an acre of faringhátí land, 13 cwts. of ííus paddy, together with 11 cwts. of mustard seed. Rates of wages have greatly increased in recent years, owing to the introduction of tea cultivation, and it is often difficult to procure labour at all. Ordinary day-labourers now obtain from 6d. to gd. a day, as compared with id. thirty years ago, while agricultural labourers, where not remunerated in kind, receive about 125. a month ; skilled artisans receive from is. to 25. a day. The price of foodgrains has nearly trebled within the past thirty-five years. Common rice sold at 25. 8d. per cwt. in 1838, at 3s. 5d. in 1860, at 5s. 5d. in 1870, and at 75. 4 d. in 1883-84. In 1870, best rice imported from Bengal fetched 13. 8d. per cwt., and common unhusked rice, 2s. 6d. During the Orissa famine of 1866, the price of common rice rose to 8s. 2d. per cwt. The District is exposed to the three natural calamities of blight, flood, and drought, each of which has been known to seriously affect the general barvest. In 1822, swarms of locusts caused a complete destruction of the crops; a widespread famine resulted, and the price of unhusked rice is traditionally reported to have risen to £1, 25. 6d. per cwt. Similar damage on a smaller scale was inflicted by locusts in 1840, and again in 1858. The low-lying lands are annually inundated by the rising of the Brahmaputra and other rivers, but these floods rarely injure the general harvest. The inundations, however, of 1825 and 1842 are said to have caused much distress ; but the rivers are on such a scale, and the configuration of the country is such, that it is almost hopeless to think of constructing protective works, in the shape of embankments. Drought is almost entirely unknown, and has never been severe; the only scarcity due to this cause liappened in 1835, when there was a great deficiency in the local rainfall. Altogether, the danger of famine from either flood or drought may be put aside as most unlikely. Manufactures, etc.—The manufactures of Nowgong are only sufficient to meet the local demand. The principal industries are the following: -Weaving of silk and cotton cloth; jewellers' work in gold and silver ; basket and mat making; and the making of various utensils from brass, bell-metal, and iron. Three varieties of silk are woven, of varying degrees of fineness :-Pát, from the cocoons of a worm fed on the mulberry; mugá, from a worm fed on the sum and soilu trees; and crid, from a worm fed on the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis). Other specialities are a kind of cotton cloth, with finely woven borders of gold or silver tlıread ; and jápis or broad-brimmed hats, which serve as umbrellas. The commerce of the District is chiefly conducted by river, at the following permanent markets :-Nowgong town, Puránígudám, Kaliábar,