Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/312

 BENGAL.

302

During the

generation, the rates ranged from

last

r

anna

to 3

(i^d. to 4^d.), the lowest being the rate generally prevalent.

annas

On

the

whole, the wages of labour have risen in proportion to the prices of

common

food.

The indebtedness once was, but

it still

of the cultivators as a class exists to a large extent.

not so serious as

is

it

worst in Behar, less

It is

and Western Bengal and in Orissa, and least in Eastern and Northern Bengal, where it has in places altogether disappeared. The ordinary rates of interest are as high as 2 pice in the rupee per month in Central

for

money

equal to 37^ per cent, per

lent,

usually paid as interest on rice advances.

The

crop.

annum; and 50 The security is

per cent,

is

the standing

creditors are generally the village bankers; but often, also,

the zatn'inddrs, or landholders.

The

loans are contracted partly for

purchase of cattle and implements of husbandry, to some extent for law expenses, and largely for marriage ceremonies.

—Rice —The chief products of the crop The great already summarised. —the or spring the three harvests Agriculture

.

staple

is

rice

Province have been

of which there are

autumn rice and dman, or winter rice. Of these, the last or winter rice is by far the most extensively cultivated, and forms the great harvest of the year. In May or June, after the first fall This crop is grown on low land. of rain, a nursery ground is ploughed three times, and the seed scattered

When

broadcast. is

boro,

year,

in

the seedlings

prepared for transplanting.

thoroughly set water.

It is

into the soil,

and the

in,

field

rice



dus, or



make their appearance, another field By this time the rainy season has is

dammed up

so as to retain

the

then repeatedly ploughed until the water becomes worked and the whole reduced to thick mud. The young rice is

next taken from the nursery, and transplanted in rows about 9 inches rains, the nursery If, by reason of the backwardness of the apart.

ground cannot be prepared rice

not transplanted at

is

April-May-June, the dman In such a case, the husbandmen in

for the seed in all.

June, July, or August soak the paddy in water for one day to germinate, and plant the germinated seed, not in a nursery plot, but in the larger fields,

into.

which they would otherwise have used to transplant the sprouts seldom, however, that this procedure is found It is very

necessary.

and

Aman

rice

is

much more

extensively cultivated than dus,

the most valuable crop

but being sown low lands it is liable to be destroyed by excessive rainfall. The dman reaped in November-December-January. Aus rice is generally sown in favourable years

high ground.

The

is

field is

ploughed, when the early rains set

in,

in is

in

ten or

reduced nearly to dust, the seed being As soon as the )'oung plants reach April or May. in broadcast sown 6 inches in height, the land is harrowed for the purpose of thinning the twelve times over,

till

crop and to clear

it

the soil

is

of weeds.

The crop

is

harvested in August or