Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/256

 BELL ARY.

246

Again, in outbreaks of cattle distemper, the efficacy of

fixed axle.

segregation has of late been recognised.

The cultivated area is parcelled out into 76,087 separate holdings, the average holding being about 15 acres of ‘dry’ and o'46 acres of ‘wet’ land; the average assessment is is. 5|d. per acre of ‘dry,’ and IIS. 4|d.

Of

per acre of ‘wet’ land.

more than

the total

number of landholders,

occupy holdings paying

less than ;^i ; only about 13,337 occupy holdings paying more than ^3 per annum. The ‘wet’ land of the District stands on the ofiicial register at 2 percent, of

49,406, or

the total area



half,

the sources of irrigation being tanks of

all

sizes (454),

channels (loi), spring channels (418), and wells (8731). Prices have for many years been steadily rising and where money

river



payments obtain, agricultural labourers and ordinary artisans now receive double, and even treble, the wages given before 1850. The field labourers, however, are, as a rule, paid in kind, and the rise of prices, therefore, has not affected them.

In other respects, the cultivator class

has benefited, the cotton-growers notably,

many

of

whom

during the

American war made considerable fortunes. Rice during 1840-50 averaged 24 lbs. for the shilling, between 1850-60 it rose to 20 lbs., and since i860 has averaged 10 lbs. for the shilling cholam during the same period rose from 58 to 38 and 23 lbs. for the shilling, and rd^ from 62 to 46 and 25 lbs. cotton also rose in value from 68 shillings per candy to no and 292 shillings. Natural Calamities The earliest famine recorded is that of 1 792-93. In that year rice sold at 4 lbs. for the shilling, and cholam, the staple



.

food of the masses,

300 per

cent.,

—

at

12 lbs. for the shilling.

and wholesale emigration took

of the Gantiir (Guntoor) famine,

when

In 1803, prices rose In 1833, the year

place.

in that District 150,000 persons,

out of a total of 500,000, perished from want of food, cholera followed the famine, and in Gooty (Giiti) and Bellary 12,000 persons died during

Grain

the outbreak.

riots

occurred

in several places,

siderable mortality from starvation.

accumulated

in Bellary

and there was a con-

Disasters, local in their incidence,

between the years 1851-54.

A storm

swept over

the District, damaging the tanks and irrigation works, in 1851; and before

the repairs were completed, heavy and unseasonable rainfall (1852)

ruined the crops.

famine the

set in.

In 1853, the total

fall

of rain was only 6 inches, and

One-third of the cattle in the District died, but owing to

prompt recourse

to relief

works the mortality among the people was

In 1866, the failure of the rains doubled the price of food, and relief works being opened, 21,000 persons crowded to them. Cholera broke out, and in many villages the death-rate was so high that not great.

the panic-stricken inhabitants ceased to burn or bury their dead.

The

storm of 1851, above referred to, was of remarkable violence, and, being accompanied by torrents of rain, swept away the towns of Guliem and