— BENARES.
259
second crop of some other staple. Where small proprietors own the each holder generally tills his own plot in person but, as a rule, the greater portion is let out to cultivating tenants. The whole District is permanently settled, and the landlords are therefore unusually power-
soil,
and wealthy. They can raise their rents without restriction, and the number of tenants-at-will increases daily, as the older occupancy-holders ful
die out for want of heirs, or lose their privileges from inability to pay
The
the rent.
male adult agricultural population
total
is
returned at
The
141,790, cultivating an average area of 3 ‘98 acres each. agricultural population, however, wholly
dependent on the
soil,
total
numbers
Of the total 439)6 o 5, or 49'25 per cent, of the District population. area of 998 square miles, 971 square miles are assessed for Government revenue, and of which 723 square miles are cultivated 66 square miles still available for cultivation ; and 182 square miles uncultivable
and
Total Government assessment, including local rates and on land, ;^io4,739, or an average of 4s. 6^d. per cultivated acre. Total rental actually paid by cultivators, ;^i 69,499, or an average of 7s. i|d. per cultivated acre. In the city of Benares, owing to the wealth of its rich traders and bankers, and the constant influx of opulent waste.
cesses
pilgrims, the standard of living ranks decidedly higher than elsewhere in the
North-Western Provinces
element, bringing with in Calcutta,
does
it
much
and the presence of a
large Bengali
the habits and ideas of comfort which prevail
keep up the tendency
to
But
in that direction.
the crowded peasantry of the country pargands live in extreme poverty,
and have distress.
unskilled
or nothing upon which they can fall back in seasons of Coolies and Wages and prices have risen of late years. labourers now receive from 2;Jd. to 3|d. per diem; agricultural little
and carpenters, 6d. to 2s. men, while less than The children are paid from one-half to one-third the wages of adults. following were the average prices-current of food-grains in 1876 Wheat, 21 sers per rupee, or 5s. 4d. per cwt. best rice, 13 sers per
labourers, 2;|d.
per diem.
to 3d. per
Women
diem
obtain
bricklayers
about
one-fifth
rupee, or 8s. 7d. per cwt.
jodr, 30 sers per rupee, or 3s. gd. per cwt.
In 1882, wheat was 16^ best rice, 12^ sers per rupee, or
bdjrd, 29 sers per rupee, or 3s. lod. per cwt. sers per rupee, or 6s.
i^d. per cwt.
9^-d.
per cwt.
9W.
jodr, 29^ sers per rupee, or 3s. bdjrd, 28 sers per rupee, or 4s. per cwt. 8s.
I
Natural
Calamities.
— Although
neighbours from drought, and from it
Benares its
District
per cwt.
suffers
like
and its
natural consequence, famine, yet
appears to occupy an intermediate position between the centres of
distress in
by
Upper India and Bengal,
so as to be less severely affected
scarcity than either of the regions to the east
Benares was visited by famine in east of Allahabad,
common
with
including those of Behar.
and west.
all
In
In 1770, the other Districts 1783, the dearth
