BAR
238
Rs. 2 per mensem is more common. their wives do not, as a rule, work.
These farm servants state that
In the preceding paragraphs we found labourers working at irrigation from tanks receiving one anna per day and grain worth three-fifths of a rupee in the month. This would be Rs. 2-5 per mensem if the labourer worked twenty-eight days but it is evident that this is an unnaturally low wage the result of custom and only maintained because each one in In the case of the labourers at the his turn accepts and pays his wages. wells, perhaps harder work, we found that the labourer got five sers kachcha, equal to 2J sers pakka, in Fatehpur, worth about two annas, or Rs. 3-12 per mensem, if regularly employed, which in the case of such labour Labour on the roads is paid at the rate of two is, of course, impossible. annas a day for excavators and one and a half anna for hodmen carpenwages have not risen. ters and smiths get three annas per day
—
—
—
Ordinary rates are, says, Rents. Rents in Bara Banki are very high. the tahsildar, Rs. 7 to Rs. 8 per kachcha bigha for garden lands this would be Rs. 32 to Rs. 37 per acre in Kuntur, Muhammadpur ; they rise, he says, to Rs. 21 per kachcha bigha, or Rs. 96 per acre. My own inquiries show that in Dewa, Nawabganj, thirteen fields, not under garden crops, selected at random, were locally measured at 53 bighas ; their aggregate area was 54,260 square yards, or llj acres, and their rent was Rs. 129, or Six fields of garden crops were rated 9^ bighas, meaRs. 11 per acre. sured 7,907 square yards, and paid rent Rs. 29-15, or Rs. 18-5 per acre. The highest admitted rent amongst those tested was. Rs. 3-8 per nominal But rents seem to be raised bigha, although Rs. 6 was stated to be paid. The kachcha bigha ought to' rather by diminishing the size of the bigha. measure 2| to the Shahjahanpur bigha of 3,025 square yards ; it ought but therefore to be 1,212 square yards, or exactly one quarter of an acre the foregoing statistics prove that it averages about 1,000 square yards in the ordinary lands. In garden lands the bigha averaged 830 square yards and sank as low as 528 square yards. In this way one field nominally at Rs. 3-8 per bigha, and containing 658 yards, paid a rental of Rs. 4-6, or about Rs. 32 per acre. The tahsildar in his averages is perhaps not far wrong ; and an average rent of Rs. 10 per acre for ordinary lands, and Rs. 25 for garden lands, may be accepted as usual ; but in lands which number of fields taken at cannot be irrigated, about Rs. 7 per acre. random in Fatehpur gave a rent of Rs. 685 for 98 acres. One rupee per bigha, or Rs. 4 per acre, seems the ordinary rate for lands on the outer edge of the village ; but if the soil is saline, or sandy, rates are lower than
—
A
these.
The tenantry complain that the bigha is liable to change, and that it is smaller than in the Nawabi ; they admit, however, that prices of grain are higher, but affirm on the other hand that crops are smaller, so that on the whole their balance and livelihood are smaller and equally uncertain.
An average farm is about 4 acres. The tenantry are deeply involved in debt they complain now that the money-lenders refuse to advance them any more. The rates of interest are the same as in the Nawabi, Rs. 2 to Rs. 3-4 per cent, per month, besides the usurious rates called " up", and other
