BANKURA.
84
no control over their services, the ghdtwdls were taken over by the Government, the revenue paid by the Raja to the State being reduced by the amount he had received from them. Spare land fit for tillage ,
is
Tenures, however, are not unfavourable to
scarce in the District.
and that there is a certain quantity of surplus cultivable land is shown by the fact that a class of peasants, known as sdjds, only hold their lands on a yearly lease, and lead a wandering life from village to village, settling down for the time wherever they can get their temporary holdings on the best terms, and paying their rent in kind. The peasantry are almost invariably in debt, and almost all are tenants-at-will. Very few cases occur of small proprietors who own, occupy, and cultivate their hereditary lands, without either a superior landlord above, or a sub-tenant or labourer below them. A holding exceeding 17 acres in extent is considered an exceptionally large farm, while one below 3^^ acres is exceptionally small. A peasant with a the cultivators
small farm of 5 acres keeper, or a
not so well off as a respectable
is
man drawing
a pay of Rs.
8,
or i6s. a month.
retail
shop-
Wages and
prices have considerably increased in the District of late years.
i860, the price of the best cleaned rice was it
had
1871,
risen to 4s. 3d. IS.
labourers
is
No marked
3d. per
io|d. a cwt.
In
in 1871,
the price of sugar-cane in i860 was 8|d., and in
The
8d. a cwt.
2s.
diem
present wage of coolies and agricultural day-
formerly they received about half that sum.
change has taken place in the
rates of rent since the
nent Settlement; the present rates for rice land are from acre; for inferior land, 3s. to 12s.
Permaan
qs. to i8s.
the rates for land suitable for the culti-
vation of cotton, sugar-cane, and other superior crops are of course
and ^2, 14s. two crops. Natural Calamities The District is subject to drought, occasioned by a deficiency in the rainfall, which is attributed to the indiscriminate higher, ;£i, 17s. 6d. an acre being given for such land, for land yielding
.
clearing of jungle.
—
As
there are very
few patches of low marshy
land in the District which retain moisture for a considerable time, a Inundations occur year of general drought results in serious calamity. every year, owing to the suddenness with which the rivers and streams rise in the
rainy season,
accordingly,
—so
much
and the lands bordering on the so that in
many
rivers suffer
places they are permanently
Drought in Bankura allowed to remain waste and uncultivated. District arises solely from a deficiency in the local rainfall, and not from the failure of the rivers or streams to bring
dowm
their usual supply of
Nothing has been done to guard against the calamity of drought. The famine of 1866, which followed a season of drought, affected Bankura principally in the w'estern portion, the tract adjoining Bardwan water.
not suffering at
all seriously.
The number
of paupers relieved during
the months of July, August, September, and October 1866, was 33,216;
