Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/141

 BARDIVAN.

131

and the systematic obstruction of the is said to be one of the causes of which devastates the District. Manure is

tion of the neighbouring fields



drainage channels by this practice the prevalence of the fever

abundantly used, and consists principally of cow-dung, tank-deposits, oil-cake. A cultivator’s holding exceeding 35 acres in extent forms a large-sized farm, while anything below 3^ acres is looked upon A holding consisting of 10 acres of land of all as a very small one.

and

descriptions,

and paying a

total

rent of ^£6 per

comfortable holding for a husbandman. of 5 acres,

is

A

annum,

is

a fair-sized

peasant, with a small farm

not, however, so well off as a retail shopkeeper, or a

drawing a pay of

16s. a

month; a sum which

man

affords a comfortable

Nearly two-thirds of the support for a middling-sized household. husbandmen of Bardwan District hold their lands with a right of occupancy, the remaining one-third being simple tenants-at-will. There many cases of small proprietors who own, occupy, and cultivate

are not

a superior landlord above, or a A fair out-turn from lands paying a rent of i8s. an acre would be 22 to 35 cwts. of unhusked los. to y£,2, 8s. The rates of rent vary paddy per acre, worth from

their hereditary lands without either

sub-tenant

or

labourer beneath

them.

greatly in the different Sub-divisions of the District, as well as for the

The

which generally gives an acre for fourth-class to 1 6s. per acre for first-class land; and for salt, or one-crop land, from 4s. 6d. for fourth-class to i8s. for first-class land. The Government assessment, including local rates and cesses levied on the land, amounted in 1881 to ;^338,68i, or an average of 2s. iid. per acre of Total rental paid by cultivators, ^552,658, or an average total area. different kinds of land.

two crops

of

in

rental of sond land,

the year, varies from

6s. 6d.

per acre of total area.

Wages

generally have

much

9s.

increased of late years, and especially

works were commenced. Agricultural labourers a month, and smiths and carpenters now get from 12s. to to jQi, I os. a month, or considerably more than double the former Cheapness of food does not seem to result in any rates of wages. corresponding fluctuation in the rates of wages; in 1871-72, for example, food was generally cheap, but the price of labour did not fall. The price of the best cleaned rice in that year was 8s. rod. a cwt., and In 1882, rice was cheaper than in 1871, of coarse rice 4s. 3d. a cwt. due to two years’ exceptionally good harvests. After the winter harvest in 1882, coarse rice sold at 3s. 9d., and for a time as low as 2s. rod. a There seems to have been an increase in the prices of rice, but cwt. there are no materials previous to 1870 from which a correct estimate can be formed ; the only earlier year for which there are figures is 1862, when the average price of coarse rice in Bardwan town was 3s. 3^d. per since

the

cwt.

Bardwan

railway

District contained in

1882, 2163 recorded Idkhirdj or