BANDA.
52
amounts to 493,652, or 7 7 '66 per cent, of the District population. the total District area of 3061 square miles, 2871 square miles are
soil,
Of
Government revenue, of which 1543 were
actually under 990 square miles were returned as cultivable. Total Government assessment, including rates and cesses paid on land,
- j£^i37,o 52, or an average of 2s. 9^d. per cultivated acre; total rental
paid by cultivators, including cesses, ^^207, 699, or an average of The rates of rent vary from under 4s. 4s. i |d. per cultivated acre. an acre for ordinary and poor soils, to 15s. an acre for the best. Labourers engaged by the year receive as wages i6s. per annum, eked out by an allowance of grain from June to October, and a present of clothing at the end of the engagement. Monthly labourers, during the busy season, obtain 4s. a month, besides a daily allowance of ^ lb. of bread. Ordinary day-labourers sometimes receive as little as one dnnd Women and children take (lid.) per diem, without further allowance. part in even the most arduous field work. Wages have been on the
assessed for
cultivation in 1880-81, while
increase since 1850, but as the price of grain has risen in
the same proportion, the benefit to the
labourer
more than
only apparent.
is
Coolies received from i|d. to 2^d. a day in 1850; from 3d. to 3|d. in 1881 smiths, from 3d. to 4id. in 1850; from 4|-d. to 7id. in 1871
bricklayers, from 3|d. to 6d. in 1850; from 4id. to 7id. in 1881
carpenters, from 3d. to 6d. at the former date; from 4id. to
the in
1850,
cwt. in
At the same time,
latter.
6d.
4s.
prices ruled as follows
per cwt, in 1871,
millet {bdjrd), in 1850,
1881-82,
3s. 9d.
8s.,
and
lojd. per cwt., in 1871,
4s.
and
7-id. at
— Common
1881-82,
in
rice,
3d. per
6s.
loid.,
and
per cwt.
Natural Calamities
.
—The
District of
Banda
is
specially exposed to
the ravages of insects, of which no less than 16 destructive species are enumerated.
and one
much
They
attack the wheat, rice, gram,
in particular affects the cotton.
as three-fourths of the crops.
Some
and other
grains,
of them destroy as
Floods are not
serious,
and
in
most cases prove beneficial. The District suffers much from drought, which was the main cause of the famine of 1869. Prices began to In rise in April, and continued high till the end of the year. May, as many as 10,943 persons were employed daily upon relief works. By the end of June the rains set in, and prevented the The maximum price of gram in 1869 necessity for further relief. was 10 sers for the rupee, or iis. 2^d. per cwt. There was also considerable suffering in 1877-78 on account of drought. The point at which famine
rates are reached varies in the different Fiscal Divisions
{parga?ids).
In
Banda
pargafid,
where the population
is
densest,
should be given when wheat sells at 22s. 4d. per cwt.,. and gram Elsewhere, famine rates are reached with wheat at 14s. per cwt. The communications of the and gram at just half those prices. relief
