BENGAL.
302
During the
generation, the rates ranged from
last
r
anna
to 3
(i^d. to 4^d.), the lowest being the rate generally prevalent.
annas
On
the
whole, the wages of labour have risen in proportion to the prices of
common
food.
The indebtedness once was, but
it still
of the cultivators as a class exists to a large extent.
not so serious as
is
it
worst in Behar, less
It is
and Western Bengal and in Orissa, and least in Eastern and Northern Bengal, where it has in places altogether disappeared. The ordinary rates of interest are as high as 2 pice in the rupee per month in Central
for
money
equal to 37^ per cent, per
lent,
usually paid as interest on rice advances.
The
crop.
annum; and 50 The security is
per cent,
is
the standing
creditors are generally the village bankers; but often, also,
the zatn'inddrs, or landholders.
The
loans are contracted partly for
purchase of cattle and implements of husbandry, to some extent for law expenses, and largely for marriage ceremonies.
—Rice —The chief products of the crop The great already summarised. —the or spring the three harvests Agriculture
.
staple
is
rice
Province have been
of which there are
autumn rice and dman, or winter rice. Of these, the last or winter rice is by far the most extensively cultivated, and forms the great harvest of the year. In May or June, after the first fall This crop is grown on low land. of rain, a nursery ground is ploughed three times, and the seed scattered
When
broadcast. is
boro,
year,
in
the seedlings
prepared for transplanting.
thoroughly set water.
It is
into the soil,
and the
in,
field
rice
dus, or
make their appearance, another field By this time the rainy season has is
dammed up
so as to retain
the
then repeatedly ploughed until the water becomes worked and the whole reduced to thick mud. The young rice is
next taken from the nursery, and transplanted in rows about 9 inches rains, the nursery If, by reason of the backwardness of the apart.
ground cannot be prepared rice
not transplanted at
is
April-May-June, the dman In such a case, the husbandmen in
for the seed in all.
June, July, or August soak the paddy in water for one day to germinate, and plant the germinated seed, not in a nursery plot, but in the larger fields,
into.
which they would otherwise have used to transplant the sprouts seldom, however, that this procedure is found It is very
necessary.
and
Aman
rice
is
much more
extensively cultivated than dus,
the most valuable crop
but being sown
low lands it is liable to be destroyed by excessive rainfall. The dman reaped in November-December-January. Aus rice is generally sown in favourable years
high ground.
The
is
field is
ploughed, when the early rains set
in,
in is
in
ten or
reduced nearly to dust, the seed being As soon as the )'oung plants reach April or May. in broadcast sown 6 inches in height, the land is harrowed for the purpose of thinning the twelve times over,
till
crop and to clear
it
the soil
is
of weeds.
The crop
is
harvested in August or
