BHAGALPUR. The
high land this crop requires irrigation.
District,
sown
is
The
out-turn varies from
i
r
Indigo, which covers about 10,000 acres in the
to i8 cwts. per acre.
season.
349
October and cut
in
the beginning of the rainy
in
area under aghani rice in Bhagalpur
is
estimated at
1,137,100 acres, and that under bhadai crops, including Indian corn, Wages have increased considerably since the opening at 552,260 acres. of the E.
I.
Railway.
Coolies
formerly their pay was
i|d.
now
formerly got 2^d. to 2|d.,
now
to
or double their former wages.
(women, ifd.) a day; Smiths and carpenters, who
get 2|d.
i^d.
receive 3fd.
bricklayers get 6d. a day,
Agricultural day-labourers are paid in
kind, generally receiving only a day’s food in return for the day’s work.
The
price of the best cleaned rice varies from about 4s. 8d. to 7s. 6d.
a cwt. 5s.
rod.
common
from
rice
2s.
9d. to 4s. 8d.
and Indian corn from
2s.
to
2d.
w'heat from 4s. 3d. to 3s.
6d.
per cwt.
The
greater portion of Bhagalpur consists of permanently settled estates,
and there are few intermediate permanent rights between the za 7ninddr and the cultivator. Zaminddns are generally let on short leases to farmers, who tr)- to make as much as they can during their term, and never attempt to improve the condition of the tenantry or the land. The peasantry are said to be not much in debt to the tnahdjans or
The District contained in 1875, 4364 revenuepaying tenures held direct under Government ; 3004 intermediate tenures; 7876 Idkhtrdj (revenue - free) and 1618 service tenures.
village money-lenders.
Among these
the last are
ghdtwdlt
District.
more than 200 held
holdings
Rents
>y
ghdtwdls
explained in the
is
varj' greatly
article
the nature of
on
Bankur.v soil and
according to the nature of the
In the north, the rates are generally low, the position of the land. The lowest except in pargand Nan'digar, which is exceedingly fertile. rates of all are to
w'hich
is
be found
always changing
its
in the
neighbourhood of the
river Kiisf,
course.
—
Bhagalpur has suffered from time to time from Natural Calamities and there are records of famines in 1770, 1775, 1779, and Between 1783 and 1865-66, the year of the great Orissa famine, 1783. In the famine the District seems to have been free from this scourge. of 1866, Bhagalpur suffered considerably, and the price of rice rose to .
scarcity,
1 2S.
9^d. per cwt.
The
highest average daily
number of persons
relieved
was 1108, and the largest average number employed on There was a good relief work during any month was about 700. In 1874, when the deal of sickness, but no epidemic prevailed. District was again threatened with famine, measures were taken on an extensive scale to avert such a calamity. The expenditure incurred in dealing with the scarcity was over jQe)i,ooo, exclusive of the cost of the Calcutta and locally-purchased grain, and of the A large proportion of this expenditure. carriage of the former by rail.
gratuitously
