BARDIVAN.
131
and the systematic obstruction of the is said to be one of the causes of which devastates the District. Manure is
tion of the neighbouring fields
drainage channels by this practice the prevalence of the fever
abundantly used, and consists principally of cow-dung, tank-deposits, oil-cake. A cultivator’s holding exceeding 35 acres in extent forms a large-sized farm, while anything below 3^ acres is looked upon A holding consisting of 10 acres of land of all as a very small one.
and
descriptions,
and paying a
total
rent of ^£6 per
comfortable holding for a husbandman. of 5 acres,
is
A
annum,
is
a fair-sized
peasant, with a small farm
not, however, so well off as a retail shopkeeper, or a
drawing a pay of
16s. a
month; a sum which
man
affords a comfortable
Nearly two-thirds of the support for a middling-sized household. husbandmen of Bardwan District hold their lands with a right of occupancy, the remaining one-third being simple tenants-at-will. There many cases of small proprietors who own, occupy, and cultivate
are not
a superior landlord above, or a A fair out-turn from lands paying a rent of i8s. an acre would be 22 to 35 cwts. of unhusked los. to y£,2, 8s. The rates of rent vary paddy per acre, worth from
their hereditary lands without either
sub-tenant
or
labourer beneath
them.
greatly in the different Sub-divisions of the District, as well as for the
The
which generally gives an acre for fourth-class to 1 6s. per acre for first-class land; and for salt, or one-crop land, from 4s. 6d. for fourth-class to i8s. for first-class land. The Government assessment, including local rates and cesses levied on the land, amounted in 1881 to ;^338,68i, or an average of 2s. iid. per acre of Total rental paid by cultivators, ^552,658, or an average total area. different kinds of land.
two crops
of
in
rental of sond land,
the year, varies from
6s. 6d.
per acre of total area.
Wages
generally have
much
9s.
increased of late years, and especially
works were commenced. Agricultural labourers a month, and smiths and carpenters now get from 12s. to to jQi, I os. a month, or considerably more than double the former Cheapness of food does not seem to result in any rates of wages. corresponding fluctuation in the rates of wages; in 1871-72, for example, food was generally cheap, but the price of labour did not fall. The price of the best cleaned rice in that year was 8s. rod. a cwt., and In 1882, rice was cheaper than in 1871, of coarse rice 4s. 3d. a cwt. due to two years’ exceptionally good harvests. After the winter harvest in 1882, coarse rice sold at 3s. 9d., and for a time as low as 2s. rod. a There seems to have been an increase in the prices of rice, but cwt. there are no materials previous to 1870 from which a correct estimate can be formed ; the only earlier year for which there are figures is 1862, when the average price of coarse rice in Bardwan town was 3s. 3^d. per since
the
cwt.
Bardwan
railway
District contained in
1882, 2163 recorded Idkhirdj or
