Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/313

 BENGAL.

303

Boro, or spring rice, is cultivated on low marshy land, September. being sown in a nursery in October, transplanted a month later, and

March and

harvested in

un

called

An

April.

indigenous description of

or jdra-dhdn, grows in certain marshy tracts.

very small, and

is

The

rice,

grain

gathered for consumption only by the poorest.

is

No

tabulated statistics of cultivation exist; but in 1872-73, the quantity of rice

exported from Bengal to foreign ports amounted to 288,955 tons, r,685,i7o ; in 1881-82 the total export of rice by sea

of the value of

amounted

to


 * ^i, 840,000 in value.

These

figures

and the

similar

returns of the yield or exportation of Bengal products in 1881-82 have

been supplied for this edition of the Imperial Gazetteer by the Bengal Government. They do not always agree with the general export returns from the Bengal ports. I reproduce the figures as officially furnished to me. Oil-seeds are very largely grown over the whole of Bengal, particularly in the Behar Districts; their export by sea in 1881-82 exceeded 2^ millions sterling.

(sesamum),

and

The tisi

or

principal oil-seeds are sarishd

masind

(linseed).

(mustard), til

Exports of oil-seeds are

which 107,723 tons were exported 1881-82.

principally confined to linseed, of in 1872-73,

Jute

.

and 143,206 tons

—Jute

in

now forms a very important commercial The cultivation of this crop has greatly increased during

{pdt or koshtd)

staple of Bengal.

the past twenty-five years.

Its principal seat of cultivation is

Bengal, where the superior varieties are grown.

The

Eastern

crop, which grows

on either high or low lands, is sown in April, and cut in August. In 1872, the area under jute cultivation in Bengal was estimated at 925,899 acres, and the yield at 496,703 tons. Jute exports from Bengal amounted in 1881-82 to 414,054 tons, value Jute manufactures, 548,839. in the shape of gunny -bags, cloth, rope, etc., were also exported to The jute crop varies greatly from year to the value of ^1,097,589. year. The sea-borne exports of the raw and manufactured article may be taken to average about 4^^ millions sterling, sometimes falling to below 3 millions and rising in bumper years to over 6 millions sterling. Indigo Indigo cultivation is principally carried on with European Notwithstanding the vicissitudes which it has encountered, it capital. still forms one of the principal industries of the Province. In the Districts of Nadiya and Jessor, and throughout Central Bengal, in Purniah, and westwards in all Behar north of the Ganges, indigo is largely cultivated; and, from its mode of cultivation, it is in many places the staple which most engrosses the attention of the people. The indigo riots of 1859-60 were, however, followed by a marked decline in the cultivation of the plant throughout Bengal Proper. In some Districts, indeed, the manufacture became extinct, in consequence of the hostility of the cultivators ; and although it has since shown a.

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