394 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH. from an enormous aggregate of very small items, the surplus out-turn of minute farms. The least failure of the rains, or any other temporary check to agriculture, changes the surplus into a deficit, and substitutes a large import for the export. The only parts of the Province where the export of agricultural produce shows any steadiness are Bundelkhand and the sub-Himalayan tract running from Pilibhit to Gonda, in both of which the population is scanty. It is next steadiest in Meerut, where the average size of a farm is greater than in any other part of the Provinces, except the two just mentioned. By far the chief customer of the Province is Calcutta, the combined value of whose exports and imports is very nearly half the value of the whole railway-borne trade of the Provinces. After Calcutta come the following marts, with the total value of their trade with the NorthWest : -- Rájputána, £4,034,000 ; Punjab, 52,990,000; Bengal, £2,847,000; Bombay, £1,700,000. Cawnpur still retains the pre-eminence among the local marts, with an annual trade worth about ten millions. But its pre-eminence is not so decided as it was ten years ago, and Agra, perhaps, threatens some day to challenge it. After Agra, in order of relative importance, come Benares, Faizabad, Lucknow, Allahábád, anıl Meerut The total value of the water-borne traffic is estimated at nearly four millions sterling, of which more than half is carried in about cqual proportions by the Gogra and the Ganges. Next in order come tlic Rápti river, the Ganges Canal, the Jumna, the Gumti, and the Agra Canal Agricultural produce forms by far the most important item of the trade, which, however, also includes large exports of wood and stone. There are no figures to show the traffic carried by the country roads beyond the frontiers of the Provinces, except those relating to the trade with Tibet and Nepál (given above), Omitting the ordinary road traffic between the North-Western Provinces and their neighbours under the British Government, the whole foreign trade may be estimated at about 30 millions sterling annually, for which returns amounting to over 28 millions are available. But even the estimate of 30 millions sterling is much below the truth, if the inter-provincial road traffic were included. Trading Castes.--The general name for a trader in India is Banija or Bunnia. He keeps the small village shop, stored with mcal, oil, and spices, with perhaps a little stock of Manchester calicoes; and he acts as the banker, pawnbroker, and money-lender of the neighbourhood. But there is a distinct series of trading castes under this generic description. The chief of them in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh are the following :-(1) Banjáras, or forest traders or carriers, who are the least civilised of the trading classes, and whose speciality is carrying
