BENGAL.
303
Boro, or spring rice, is cultivated on low marshy land, September. being sown in a nursery in October, transplanted a month later, and
March and
harvested in
un
called
An
April.
indigenous description of
or jdra-dhdn, grows in certain marshy tracts.
very small, and
is
The
rice,
grain
gathered for consumption only by the poorest.
is
No
tabulated statistics of cultivation exist; but in 1872-73, the quantity of rice
exported from Bengal to foreign ports amounted to 288,955 tons, r,685,i7o ; in 1881-82 the total export of rice by sea
of the value of
amounted
to
- ^i, 840,000 in value.
These
figures
and the
similar
returns of the yield or exportation of Bengal products in 1881-82 have
been supplied for this edition of the Imperial Gazetteer by the Bengal Government. They do not always agree with the general export returns from the Bengal ports. I reproduce the figures as officially furnished to me. Oil-seeds are very largely grown over the whole of Bengal, particularly in the Behar Districts; their export by sea in 1881-82 exceeded 2^ millions sterling.
(sesamum),
and
The tisi
or
principal oil-seeds are sarishd
masind
(linseed).
(mustard), til
Exports of oil-seeds are
which 107,723 tons were exported 1881-82.
principally confined to linseed, of in 1872-73,
Jute
.
and 143,206 tons
—Jute
in
now forms a very important commercial The cultivation of this crop has greatly increased during
{pdt or koshtd)
staple of Bengal.
the past twenty-five years.
Its principal seat of cultivation is
Bengal, where the superior varieties are grown.
The
Eastern
crop, which grows
on either high or low lands, is sown in April, and cut in August. In 1872, the area under jute cultivation in Bengal was estimated at 925,899 acres, and the yield at 496,703 tons. Jute exports from Bengal amounted in 1881-82 to 414,054 tons, value Jute manufactures, 548,839. in the shape of gunny -bags, cloth, rope, etc., were also exported to The jute crop varies greatly from year to the value of ^1,097,589. year. The sea-borne exports of the raw and manufactured article may be taken to average about 4^^ millions sterling, sometimes falling to below 3 millions and rising in bumper years to over 6 millions sterling. Indigo Indigo cultivation is principally carried on with European Notwithstanding the vicissitudes which it has encountered, it capital. still forms one of the principal industries of the Province. In the Districts of Nadiya and Jessor, and throughout Central Bengal, in Purniah, and westwards in all Behar north of the Ganges, indigo is largely cultivated; and, from its mode of cultivation, it is in many places the staple which most engrosses the attention of the people. The indigo riots of 1859-60 were, however, followed by a marked decline in the cultivation of the plant throughout Bengal Proper. In some Districts, indeed, the manufacture became extinct, in consequence of the hostility of the cultivators ; and although it has since shown a .
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