Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/31

 BALLIA.

21

revenue, or in execution of decrees of the Civil Courts.

In pargand Lakhneswar, held by the Sengars, there are as many proprietors as male members of the clan, and each proprietor has his holding scattered over several villages, and some have shares in each of the 134 villages of the pargajid. On the other hand, a single proprietor, the Mahardja of

Dumrdon, has

largely

added

Ballia.

tenure,

and is now propargand Doaba, and of half of pargand

to his ancestral holding,

prietor of nearly the whole of

Between these extremes, the land is held in every variety of and in areas more or less large by greater or smaller bodies

of proprietors.

The

and complication of the pro-

diversity in extent

prietary rights only covers, however, a real uniformity in the nature of

The

the agricultural holdings of the District.

holdings mainly by

members

land

is

held in small

of the three chief castes above mentioned.

Whether they pay rent

to a proprietor or land revenue direct to the Government, or to one of their own body representing them before Government, is merely a detail affecting the amount of the profit they derive from the soil, and is not even a safe criterion of that. For the privileged tenants the tenants at fixed rates, whose rent-rate cannot be enhanced frequently pay less as rent for their land to the proprietor than in some villages is paid by the small proprietors as land revenue. Chiefly under these proprietors and privileged tenants, but to some extent independent of them, are the holdings of the lower cultivating In the castes the Kachhis (called Koeris in this District) and others. methods of agriculture and in the crops grown, there is little special to this District. In the upland tract, in the hollow land, and along the j'Mls or marshes, much rice is sown, and is entirely dependent upon the

—

—

—

rainy season, as

The by

is

also the success or failure of the ordinary khartf cro])S.

rabi or winter harvest of wheat, barley, peas, etc.,

irrigation

rains suffice to fertility

is

largely protected

from wells and tanks, but in favourable seasons the winter

mature an ordinary crop.

In the alluvial tract the

of the soil and the certainty of the out-turn

is

much

greater.

from rainless seasons and drought, but has never experienced the extremity of famine. The low lands along the Ganges can scarcely ever fail to give their rich return to the easy labour of the Ballia has suffered

husbandman

and where the floods of the river do not reach, water is dug in the underlying sand, and is raised to the surface by the dhenkal or lever lift. Cotton is scarcely grown at all in Ballia, but the sugar-cane is a staple product in every village, and large quantities of sugar are annually made in the numerous factories which stud the District. Poppy is grown to a considerable extent, and

readily found in shallow wells

occupies 6752 acres.

Owing lation,

to the great pressure

to the reluctance

proprietors,

to

to the generally

on the

part great

with

soil

from the density of popu-

land characteristic of small

productiveness

of the land, and