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1
BA/^A BANK/.
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owned by large proprietors {td/ukddrs), Muhammadans, though forming only i6i per cent, of the population, owned in 1874, 938 out of 2093 villages. Of the 1155 villages owned by Hindus, 826 were held by Kshattri}’as, chiefly of the Raikwar and Surajbans clans; 97 by Kayasths, 86 by Brahmans, and 35 by Kurmis. The cultivators are for the most part tenants-at-will, rack-rented and Three-fifths of the District
is
the rest by village coparceners.
any
debt-ridden, without
custom
the
rights in
protected from enhancement and the settlement of rents,
in
The
status of cottiers.
Competition, displacing
gradually reducing
is
number of
total
and very inadequately
soil,
eviction.
adult
male
them
to the
agriculturists
was returned
in 1881, excluding labourers,
The
average of 2'79 acres each.
total
at 197,642, cultivating an population, however, wholly
numbered 744,696, or 72'53 per cent, of Of the total District area of 1768 square miles, 1748 are assessed for Government revenue, of which 1102 Total amount square miles are actually cultivated, and 265 cultivable. of Government assessment, including local rates and cesses levied on land, ^166,826, or 4s. 8Jd. per cultivated acre; total rental dependent on the
soil,
the District population.
paid by
cultivators,
- ^322,864,
Wages, it is labourer gets from 4s. to vated acre.
5s.
a
a
or
fraction
have not
stated,
month
in
under
9s.
A
risen.
money;
per
culti-
skilled
yearly
field
presents
of grain and a blanket raise his total earnings to from ^^2, 14s. to
- £ t„
6s.
a year, or from i^d.
worth of
beans.
cavators
field
3d.
a day
is.
to is. 3d.
a week.
A
day’s
and three ounces of roasted maize;
water-lift earns
On 4^d.
road-work, is
the
work
at the
at wells, 3d.
hodmen
daily
get 2-^d., and exwage of blacksmiths and
carpenters.
Natural Calamities
when
.
— In
the last
great
famine, that
of 1837-38,
severe drought followed a succession of poor harvests, the price
is. lod. a cwt. There has been of gram rose to Rs. 8 a vtaund, or no such dearth since. In 1865 and 1868, droughts brought up the price of flour to Rs. 5 a maund, or 13s. 8d. a cwt., for some months, and in 1873 to Rs. 3. 10. o, or 9s. lo^d. a cwt. In 1871 and 1872, heavy floods poured down the Kalyani, and, by stopping all field-work,
caused even sharper distress to the labouring classes than drought, during which there is often a brisk demand for labour at wells. In the severe drought of 1877-78, the price of wheat rose to 9 sers per rupee, The approach of or I 2 S. 5d. per cwt. ; cheaper grains in proportion. famine will be threatened whenever the price of millets or barley rises, With for more than a month, to Rs. 2. 3. o a maimd, or 6s. per cwt. two navigable rivers, bridged roads between the chief towns, and road and railway communication with Cawnpur, Lucknow, Faizabad, and Bahramghat, the District is in no danger of isolation.
