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Much of the ploughing ^in fact all where the cultivators are Ohhattris or Brahmans is done by ploughmen of the peculiar status described at length in the district article. The superior value of labour in a scanty population is shown by the fact that, besides other exceptional privileges, the slave here takes as his share of the produce one maund out of five, while his less fortunate brother in the crowded southern parganas only takes one of seven. Common cultivators are enticed and retained by the provision of materials for their huts, and a small standing loan of about Rs. 10, and bearing no interest, for the purchase of plough cattle both house and loan are forfeited, if the settler abandons or declines to cultivate
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his fields. It is said that formerly the town of Balrampur was the centre of a considerable trade with Naipal, and that the highlanders used to come down in large numbers to barter the products of their hills gold, spices,and horses with the rice and cotton cloths of the plains. Any commerce of this kind which may at one time have existed, has been entirely crushed by the repressive policy of Sir Jang Bahadur of Naipal, who draws a large revenue from
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consequently endeavours to confine all dealings to his own bazar fees, markets. The Goshains of Balrampur are reputed to have been great jewel merchants, or rather smugglers and a story which relates how one Moti Gir, whose fine house is still in existence at Balrampur, on being overtaken by the soldiers of the Naipal king, discharged into the air two hundred matchlocks full of pearls in order to avoid detection, illustrates at once the extent and the risk of this form of traffic. At present the chief trade is through Nawabganj with Bengal, where rice and oil seeds are exchanged for salt, clothes and coined silver. The local markets of Mathura and Bakampur are described in separate articles. One unmetaUed road passes through the pargana and connects Utraula to the east with Bahraich to the w«st another runs from BaMmpur to Gonda. The villages are connected by rough cart tracks and communication between the northern and southern banks of the Rapti is kept up by means of large flat-bottomed ferry boats, and a stationary bridge of boats at Sisia, at the nearest point to the town of Balrampur.
The population by the settlement
returns
is
135,586, and
by the regu-
taken two years before, 160,237. It is spread over 228 demarcated villages, or 992 hamlets, at the moderate density of 368 souls to the square mile according to the settlement, and by the regular census 405. The settleinent statistics give the high average of 11 acres to each cultivating family, and 8 acres to each plough but the prevalence of spade labour makes the latter average easily intelligible. Of the total census population, 140,641 are Hindus and 19,596, or nearly 14 per cent., Muhammadans. The percentage of males to females among the Hindus is 94-7» and among the Muhammadans, 92-4. Practically, the whole population is agricultural; manufactures are wholly wanting, and if a man does not plough himself, (and there are few families of carpenters, blacksmiths, or banians, who do not cultivate small tenements in addition to their regular employments,) he is at any rate immediately engaged in facilitating the ploughing of others. The census division into agricultural and non-agricultural was clearly not understood by the men who took the returns, and is of no value; lar census
