follows that of the component parts. Safedá is made by grinding husked rice. It is never eaten in this form, but is an important ingredient in the preparation of many kinds of confectionery; it sells at 12 sers for the rupee, or id. per pound. Khud is the name given to the parings from cleaned rice, which are sold at 25 sers for the rupee, or about d. per pound. Tus is the empty husk; and kunrá the pulverized rice and husk swept up after the process of husking and cleaning the rice is completed. Both are largely used as food for milch cows.

CEREALS other than rice comprise wheat (gam) and barley (jab), both of which are sown in October and November, and reaped in March and April; and the following coarser grains, (1) bhurá, (2) chiná, (3) kodo, (4) mere, meruá, or miruá, (5) kowáin, (6) sial nejá, (7) syama. These seven are all sown in April or May, and reaped in August or September. They are either eaten boiled entire like rice, or ground into flour. Oats (jái), bajrá,and bhuttá are also cultivated, but only to a small extent.

The

GREEN CROPS.-Peas (matar) are sown in October, and reaped in January and February. Gram (chana, chholá, or but) is sown in October and November, and reaped in February and March. pulses cultivated are of various sorts, and include (1) common kalái, which is sown in October and reaped in January; (2) más-kalái, sown in September and reaped in January; (3) mug, sown and reaped at the same time as the preceding (of mug there are three varieties,-soná mug, krishna mug, and gorá mug, of which the first is the best, and the last the coarsest); (4) arhar, sown in April and reaped in March; (5) musuri, sown in October and reaped in February and March. Khesárí is also sown in October and reaped

in February and March. reaped in December.

Barbátí is sown in July and August and Beans (sim) are also sown in July and August and reaped in December. Kurtí kalái is sown in August and reaped in December and January.

OIL-SEEDS.-Mustard (sarishá) is sown in October, and reaped in December and January. Rái sarishá is sown in October, and reaped in March and April. Linseed (tísí) is sown in October, and reaped in February and March. Sesamum (til) is sown in July and August, and reaped in December and January. Surjyágonjá is sown and reaped with til.

FIBRES are jute (koshtá), flax (son), and hemp. These are all sown in May and June, and reaped in September and October. In

the case of hemp, it is to be remarked that, as a consequence of the climate, the narcotic element is developed at the expense of the fibres.

MISCELLANEOUS.—Indigo (nil) is sown in October, February, and April, and reaped in July and August. Mulberry (tut) is a perennial plant, as also is pán or betel-leaf. Sugar-cane (ikshu) is sown in March, and gathered in November and December.

VEGETABLES include amongst others—pátál, which is sown in December and January, and gathered from March to November; and báigun, of which there are two crops, the first and inferior one being sown in July and August, and gathered in September and October; the later and more valuable crop is sown in September, and gathered from October to March. Radishes (mulá), onions (piyáj), chillies (lanká), jhingá, etc. are sown and gathered at various seasons.

AREA, OUT-TURN OF CROPS.-The area of the District of Murshidábád, exclusive of the large rivers, was returned by the Boundary Commissioner in 1874 at 2462 44 square miles. The Census Report, for the purpose of calculating all averages, takes the area at 2578 square miles. The Revenue Surveyor (1852-55) ascertained. the area at that date, exclusive of the Ganges and the Bhagirathí, to be 1,595,265 20 acres, or 2492'6 square miles. This last figure must be adopted as the basis for estimating the agricultural area of the District, because no other agricultural statistics are available beyond those supplied by the Revenue Surveyor. Out of the total area of 1,595,265 20 acres, he estimated that 213,739'11 acres, or 134 per cent., are waste, leaving 1,381,526'09, or 86.6 per cent., as cultivated and cultivable. The area actually under cultivation is not otherwise distinguished. According to another principle of classification, he estimated that 7464 20 acres, or 46 per cent. of the total area, were occupied by roads; 24,692'06 acres, or 1*54 per cent., by jhils or marshes; 556.50 acres, or '03 per cent., by hills; 58,364 74, or 365 per cent., by long grass jungle and sand; 71,980 95, or 4'51 per cent., by tanks and river-beds (excluding the area covered by the Ganges and the Bhágirathi); 10,396'10, or 65 per cent., by mango topes; and 44,722 41 acres, or 2.80 per cent., by the sites of houses. All these estimates refer to the condition of the District twenty years ago. The total area was at that time very nearly the same as it is at present; but the margin of cultivation, as has been already mentioned, has advanced very much since that date. The Subdivisional Officer of Kándí states

that within the last twenty years the increase of cultivation has been about one-fifth of the total area. It is evident, therefore, that the proportion of the area now under cultivation must be very large. No figures whatever exist to show what portion of the total cultivated area is appropriated to the various crops. For the Headquarters Subdivision, the Collector hazards the following rough estimate:Out of ten acres, 4 would be under rice, 3 under pulses, 2 under wheat and barley, and under miscellaneous crops. In the Subdivision of Kándí and Jangipur, the proportion under rice is very much greater.

It is quite impossible to present any estimate, even approximately accurate, of the total out-turn of the crops of the District. Indeed, it is most difficult to arrive at the fair yield per acre of any given crop, such as rice. The rent paid is no certain indication of the amount of the annual produce. Cultivators in different ranks of society will pay different rents for fields of the same quality and of similar position. The good áman rice fields in the Jangipur Subdivision are let at Rs. 2/8 per bighá, or 15s. an acre, to ordinary rayats; but 'gentlemen farmers' can obtain them for R. 1/8 to Rs. 2 per bighá, or 9s. to 12s. an acre. Again, even apart from this consideration, the risks caused by calamities of the season have much influence in determining the rate of rent, facility of irrigation ranking in the first place. Land which is highly productive, but liable either to drought or to inundation, pays a lower rent than land which is less productive but also less exposed to mischance. For example, in the Subdivision of Kándí there are fields paying Rs. 3 per bighá, or 18s. an acre, which yield a smaller out-turn than fields renting at half that rate. It would be useless, therefore, to do as has been done in other cases, and attempt to estimate the out-turn of paddy according to the rates of rent that may be paid. The only course open is merely to record the average produce in the various parts of the District, as returned by the Collector. In the Lálbágh Subdivision 8 maunds of paddy per bighá, or 17 hundredweights an acre, are considered to be a fair yield. In the Jangipur Subdivision, the áus crop yields about 6 maunds of paddy per bighá, or about 13 hundredweights an acre; the áman crop about 7 maunds per bighá, or 15 hundredweights an acre. In this part of the District, the rent of áman land varies from R. 1 to Rs. 4 per bighá, or from 6s. to 24s. an acre; and a good áman harvest will yield, in a favourable season, as much as 11 maunds per bighá, or

24 hundredweights an acre. In the Kándí Subdivision, the average out-turn of paddy per bighá is 10 maunds, or 22 hundredweights an acre. In the southern parts of the Sadr or Headquarters Subdivision, from 10 to 14 maunds of paddy would be the fair return for a bighá, or from 22 to 30 hundredweights an acre. In the north of this Subdivision this estimate has to be reduced to 7 or 8 maunds per bighá, or 15 or 17 hundredweights an acre. Bábu Pulin Bihárí Sen of Barhampur (whose report is printed in pp. 133-135 of The Journal of the Agricultural Society, Part I., new series, vol. ii. 1870) says that the average yield from a bighá of paddy land is from 6 to 7 maunds, or 13 to 15 hundredweights an acre; and that the maximum out-turn is 8, or in some places 12, maunds per bighá, i.e. 17 or 26 hundredweights for the acre.

For estimating the value of this out-turn, the value of common paddy may be taken at about 12 ánnás a maund, or 2s. old. per hundredweight. It must also be remembered that, in addition to the main rice crop, a second crop of gram, peas, oil-seeds, or vegetables is sometimes obtained from the same field. A crop of peas, raised on a field that has already borne a crop of paddy that year, would amount probably to 4 or 5 maunds per bighá, valued at Rs. 4 or Rs. 5; which would be about 9 or 11 hundredweights an acre, worth £1, 4s. od. or £1, 10s. od. A crop of linseed or gram would differ in quantity, but amount to about the same value. Hence it may be inferred that a bighá of paddy land will yield an out-turn varying from 6 maunds in the case of ordinary lands to 15 maunds in the case of superior lands. Represented in rupees, the value of this out-turn may be said to range from Rs. 4/8 in the one case to Rs. 12/8 in the other. Changing the terms, an acre of land produces from 13 to 33 hundredweights, worth from £1, 7s. od. to £3, 15s. od.

CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY.—It is difficult to determine the precise limit which may be considered to distinguish a large from a small holding, as it appears to vary in different parts of the District. Roughly speaking, a holding above 60 bighás, or 20 acres in extent, would be thought large; and a holding below 10 bighás, or about 3 acres, very small. A holding of 32 bighás, or 11 acres, would be reckoned a fair-sized, comfortable farm for a husbandman. A pair of oxen may possibly be made to cultivate 20 bighás, or 7 acres; but more usually the use of a pair of oxen would be limited to 16 bighás, or 5 acres, just one-half of the holding which has been

described as a fair-sized one. A 'plough' of land, therefore, may be estimated at about 16 bighás, or 5 acres. Such a holding does not enable its cultivator to live as comfortably as a respectable retail shopkeeper, nor does it, in general, place him in a condition equal to that of a labourer on a money wage of Rs. 8 or 16s. per month. This statement, however, must be understood as applying only to ordinary land in the greater part of the District. If any portion of the 15 bighás is capable of producing mulberry, the position of the cultivator is altogether altered. In Kándí Subdivision, also, the state of things is different, and the holder of 16 bighás is there in better circumstances than the shopkeeper. Paddy land, again, which produces two crops, may, with good management, enable the cultivator to earn as much as Rs. 8 or 16s. per month from a jót of 16 bighás; and instances of this, according to the Collector, are not rare.

The cultivators of Murshidábád District are deeply in debt. It is possible that they are not so entirely dependent upon the mahájans as the cultivators of Nadiyá, but they are much more embarrassed than the same class in the 24 Parganás.

The vast majority of the cultivators are tenants-at-will, but it is impossible to state what proportion these bear to the entire body of the peasantry. So far as the Records of the Collectorate have been examined, it appears that, up to the close of 1870, 111 rayats had established themselves, or been acknowledged, as possessing occupancy rights; and 30 rayats as possessing rights to hold in perpetuity, without being subject to enhancement of rent.

There is to be found in the District a certain small number of persons who own, occupy, and cultivate their own hereditary lands, without any zamíndár above them. They are mostly holders of lákhiráj (rent-free) or áimá (quit-rent) lands, and almost always have under them either sub-holders or labourers of some sort.

THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS of Murshidábád are cows and oxen, buffaloes, horses and ponies, asses, sheep, goats, and pigs. Of these, oxen, and occasionally buffaloes, are used in agriculture; and horses, sheep, goats, and pigs are reared for the market. Dogs and cats swarm in every village. Ducks and geese are reared in many villages; and fowls are plentiful, especially on the high lands in the north. Pigeons are rather scarce. Turkeys are seldom reared in the District, as the demand for them is small; they are generally supplied from the Districts north of the Ganges. The value of an