Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/359

 ;

BHAGALPUR. The

high land this crop requires irrigation.

District,

sown

is

The

out-turn varies from

i

r

Indigo, which covers about 10,000 acres in the

to i8 cwts. per acre.

season.

349

October and cut

in

the beginning of the rainy

in

area under aghani rice in Bhagalpur

is

estimated at

1,137,100 acres, and that under bhadai crops, including Indian corn, Wages have increased considerably since the opening at 552,260 acres. of the E.

I.

Railway.

Coolies

formerly their pay was

i|d.

now

formerly got 2^d. to 2|d.,

now

to

or double their former wages.

(women, ifd.) a day; Smiths and carpenters, who

get 2|d.

i^d.

receive 3fd.



bricklayers get 6d. a day,

Agricultural day-labourers are paid in

kind, generally receiving only a day’s food in return for the day’s work.

The

price of the best cleaned rice varies from about 4s. 8d. to 7s. 6d.

a cwt. 5s.



rod.

common

from

rice

2s.

9d. to 4s. 8d.

and Indian corn from

2s.

to

2d.



w'heat from 4s. 3d. to 3s.

6d.

per cwt.

The

greater portion of Bhagalpur consists of permanently settled estates,

and there are few intermediate permanent rights between the za 7ninddr and the cultivator. Zaminddns are generally let on short leases to farmers, who tr)- to make as much as they can during their term, and never attempt to improve the condition of the tenantry or the land. The peasantry are said to be not much in debt to the tnahdjans or

The District contained in 1875, 4364 revenuepaying tenures held direct under Government ; 3004 intermediate tenures; 7876 Idkhtrdj (revenue - free) and 1618 service tenures.

village money-lenders.

Among these

the last are

ghdtwdlt

District.

more than 200 held

holdings

Rents

>y

ghdtwdls

explained in the

is

varj' greatly

article

the nature of

on

Bankur.v soil and

according to the nature of the

In the north, the rates are generally low, the position of the land. The lowest except in pargand Nan'digar, which is exceedingly fertile. rates of all are to

w'hich

is

be found

always changing

its

in the

neighbourhood of the

river Kiisf,

course.

—

Bhagalpur has suffered from time to time from Natural Calamities and there are records of famines in 1770, 1775, 1779, and Between 1783 and 1865-66, the year of the great Orissa famine, 1783. In the famine the District seems to have been free from this scourge. of 1866, Bhagalpur suffered considerably, and the price of rice rose to.

scarcity,

1 2S.

9^d. per cwt.

The

highest average daily

number of persons

relieved

was 1108, and the largest average number employed on There was a good relief work during any month was about 700. In 1874, when the deal of sickness, but no epidemic prevailed. District was again threatened with famine, measures were taken on an extensive scale to avert such a calamity. The expenditure incurred in dealing with the scarcity was over jQe)i,ooo, exclusive of the cost of the Calcutta and locally-purchased grain, and of the A large proportion of this expenditure. carriage of the former by rail.

gratuitously