RAINFALL AND SEASONS
the expenditure of two lakhs on irrigation works in his estate.The distress was never really serious.
The great famine of 1876-78, which wrought such terrible havoc in the south of the Presidency, was hardly felt in Vizagapatam. Prices rose, no doubt, in consequence of the exportation of grain to the affected areas, and cholera was more than usually prevalent, but the remissions granted in the two Government taluks of Golgonda and Sarvasiddhi amounted to less than Rs. 20,000 and in only one month were there more than 1,000 persons in receipt of relief. The two cyclones of 1878 mentioned below did far more harm, in fact, than the famine.
The season of 1885-86 was especially unfavourable, and in the two Government taluks remissions amounting to Rs. 70,000 were necessary.
Yet in 1889, the year of 'the Ganjám famine,' Vizagapatam escaped almost entirely. This was owing to large imports of grain by sea, and by land from Gódávari and the Jeypore country, and to an increase in the usual emigration to Burma for the paddy harvest and to Gódávari for silt-clearing in the canals and work on the Nizam's railway to Bezwada, which was then approaching completion.
In 1891-92 there was again considerable scarcity of food;but the district was saved by the grain which poured down from Bastar and Jeypore by the new ghát road to the latter, and relief- works were never necessary.
In 1896-97 occurred the last famine which the district has witnessed. Conditions were aggravated by the prevalence of wide-spread distress in other parts. The north-east monsoon of 1896 was an absolute failure, the fall in the littoral tracts being less than an inch against an average of 13 inches. Though the area sown, both wet and dry, was not much below the average,the outturn was very inferior. Large imports of grain took place by rail, and even more came in by road from the Jeypore country,as much as 70,000 tons arriving altogether between January and October; but the price of ragi rose in the affected area of the district from 29 seers the rupee in August 1896 to 11 seers in July 1897. Emigrants to Burma increased from the normal of 7,000 to about 20,000 and the movement to Gódávari, though not actually enumerated, was known to be equally in excess of the ordinary. Pasture became very scarce, grass being sold at Vizagapatam at 7 annas the bundle against the usual price of 1 anna, but the forests were thrown open for grazing and the mortality among cattle was apparently slight.
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