Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/62

 BANDA.

52

amounts to 493,652, or 7 7 '66 per cent, of the District population. the total District area of 3061 square miles, 2871 square miles are

soil,

Of

Government revenue, of which 1543 were

actually under 990 square miles were returned as cultivable. Total Government assessment, including rates and cesses paid on land, paid by cultivators, including cesses, ^^207, 699, or an average of The rates of rent vary from under 4s. 4s. i |d. per cultivated acre. an acre for ordinary and poor soils, to 15s. an acre for the best. Labourers engaged by the year receive as wages i6s. per annum, eked out by an allowance of grain from June to October, and a present of clothing at the end of the engagement. Monthly labourers, during the busy season, obtain 4s. a month, besides a daily allowance of ^ lb. of bread. Ordinary day-labourers sometimes receive as little as one dnnd Women and children take (lid.) per diem, without further allowance. part in even the most arduous field work. Wages have been on the
 * j£^i37,o 52, or an average of 2s. 9^d. per cultivated acre; total rental

assessed for

cultivation in 1880-81, while

increase since 1850, but as the price of grain has risen in

the same proportion, the benefit to the

labourer

more than

only apparent.

is

Coolies received from i|d. to 2^d. a day in 1850; from 3d. to 3|d. in 1881 smiths, from 3d. to 4id. in 1850; from 4|-d. to 7id. in 1871



bricklayers, from 3|d. to 6d. in 1850; from 4id. to 7id. in 1881

carpenters, from 3d. to 6d. at the former date; from 4id. to

the in

1850,

cwt. in

At the same time,

latter.



6d.

4s.

prices ruled as follows

per cwt, in 1871,

millet {bdjrd), in 1850,

1881-82,

3s. 9d.

8s.,

and



lojd. per cwt., in 1871,

4s.

and

7-id. at

— Common

1881-82,

in



rice,

3d. per

6s.

loid.,

and

per cwt.

Natural Calamities

.

—The

District of

Banda

is

specially exposed to

the ravages of insects, of which no less than 16 destructive species are enumerated.

and one

much

They

attack the wheat, rice, gram,

in particular affects the cotton.

as three-fourths of the crops.

Some

and other

grains,

of them destroy as

Floods are not

serious,

and

in

most cases prove beneficial. The District suffers much from drought, which was the main cause of the famine of 1869. Prices began to In rise in April, and continued high till the end of the year. May, as many as 10,943 persons were employed daily upon relief works. By the end of June the rains set in, and prevented the The maximum price of gram in 1869 necessity for further relief. was 10 sers for the rupee, or iis. 2^d. per cwt. There was also considerable suffering in 1877-78 on account of drought. The point at which famine

rates are reached varies in the different Fiscal Divisions

{parga?ids).

In

Banda

pargafid,

where the population

is

densest,

should be given when wheat sells at 22s. 4d. per cwt.,. and gram Elsewhere, famine rates are reached with wheat at 14s. per cwt. The communications of the and gram at just half those prices. relief