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equal to its old reputation. There are twenty-four concerns in Jessore, of which all the most important, as elsewhere, are the property of Europeans. The value and quantity of European indigo is out of all proportion compared to the native-made indigo; and although out of 99 factories in this district as many as 48 are worked in the interest of Bengali landholders, they are severally of no importance. In the Magoorah and Jhenidah sub-divisions, where indigo flourishes most, there are 67 factories, with an area of 76,000 beegahs, under cultivation, and an outturn of something less than 5,000 maunds. In Nurail, the outturn is about 500 maunds; in the Khoolna and Sudder sub-divisions it is less than 100 maunds. The whole produce of the Jessore district averages from 5,000 to 6,000 maunds. In Nuddea the principal cultivation is in the Chooadangah and Meherpore subdivisions. There are a great many native factories in this district also, but they are of little or no importance. The average produce of Nuddea is about equal to that of Jessore.

The indigo from Behar-Tirhoot indigo, as it is generically calledyields about one half of the produce annually exported from Calcutta. It is difficult to calculate the amount of capital invested in the province, but it is very large indeed. In a commercial prospectus circulated with a view to establishing a bank for Tirhoot, it was calculated that the annual outlay was about £600,000, a calculation which must be considered to refer to several of the Monghyr factories, which draw their supplies from Tirhoot, as well as to the majority of the Sarun and Chumparun concerns. Add to this the reserve fund necessary to meet bad seasons, and the capital of those persons who have lent money to planters, together with the value of stock and other items of fixed capital, and the total capital interested in the business in the northern districts cannot, it is estimated, be less than £1,000,000, and is probably

more.

The cultivation is almost entirely to the north of the Ganges; to the south it is very small, and indeed in Gya and Patna the business is scarcely worth mentioning. In Patna the industry is anything but successful. Three natives have set up some isolated vats, from which it is estimated that the whole annual produce may be about 70 maunds. There are nine petty concerns in Shahabad, which yield a poor crop, varying from 300 to 600 maunds. There is only one indigo concern in Gya with three out-factories, from which the average indigo outturn is 450 maunds. Owing probably to the drier climate and less favorable soil, the dye is as a rule interior to that of Tirhoot, and consequently it brings a lower price. Frequent droughts cause the crop to be an exceedingly precarious one, and smaller profits realized in the best seasons by the planters, owing to the inferiority of the dye, render them less able to weather bad years than those in the north of the division.

The three districts to the north of the Ganges in which indigo is most extensively cultivated are Tirhoot, Sarun, and Chumparun. The outturn from the Sarun district is estimated at 12,000 maunds on a cultivation of 135,000 beegahs. There are 55 indigo concerns in the district, of which 30 are principal concerns and 25 outworks. In Chumparun there is an equal outturn from only seven large concerns.

From the enormous district of Tirhoot the average outturn exceeds 20,000 maunds, and in the singularly successful season of last year yielded a produce of 29,481 maunds. There are 42 concerns in this district, of which 25 are principal concerns and 17 outworks.

In Behar, as in Bengal, the industry is almost entirely managed by Europeans, for the few native zemindars and bankers who have invested their money directly in the business almost all employ European managers; the one or two who do not do so only manufacturing on a very small scale. In Sarun, however, the native capitalists have lately taken to the business with unusual eagerness. Twenty-one factories with nineteen attached outworks are owned by natives in this district, and seventeen of these factories have sprung up within the last five or six years.

From the whole of the North-Western Provinces, whence the dye is exported through the Calcutta market, the outturn is estimated at about 25,000 maunds.

The cultivation of opium is a Government monopoly; no person is allowed to grow the poppy except on Opium. account of the Government. In Bengal and the North-Western Provinces it is prohibited by the Regulations; in 1860 the prohibition was extended to Assam. The cultivation is carried on with success only in the large cultivated Gangetic tract, which extends from the borders of Oudh to Agra on the west, and to the district of Bhaugulpore on the east, and to the division of Chota Nagpore on the south. The manufacture is carried on at two separate agencies,-that of Benares, of which the head station is at Ghazeepore, and that of Behar, of which the head station is at Patna. Annual engagements are entered into by the cultivators under a system of pecuniary advances to sow a certain quantity of land with the poppy, and the whole produce in the form of opium is delivered to the Government at a fixed rate. It is a fundamental principle to leave it entirely optional with every ryot to enter into such an engagement or not. The area under cultivation in the Behar agency amounted last year to 529,482 beegahs, or about 330,925 acres; in Benares to 865,489 beegahs, or about 229,430 acres; or in both agencies together, to 560,355 acres. The extent of land under poppy cultivation in the Behar Agency was 1,34,589 beegahs in Chumparun, 111,340 beegahs in Gya, and 88,182 in Sarun. In Patna it was 39,000 beegahs, in Shahabad 36,000, in Monghyr 38,000. The opium beegah is equal to 3,025 square yards, or about five-eighths of an acre. In Bhaugulpore opium is not grown on any extensive scale, and has decreased since the time when there was a separate opium sub-district and Sub-Deputy Agent. It is now grown about Sultangunge only, and is managed and supervised by the officer stationed at Monghyr. A new sub-division has lately been established in Chota Nagpore, where the cultivation is increasing. Last year it amounted to more than 3,000 beegahs. The lands to the south of the Ganges are all irrigated, while those to the north are only irrigated to a small extent. The lands of the Benares Agency are all in the NorthWestern Provinces. The number of chests of opium sold last year was 42,675, the amount realized was Rs. 6,06,77,013, and the net revenue Rs. 4,25,93,759.

Silk.

The manufacture of silk is a staple industry over a considerable part of the Rajshahye and Burdwan divisions. The mulberry tree is extensively and exclusively cultivated as food for the silk worm. Almost any land which will not suit rice will suit mulberry. The manufacture is for the most part carried on by European capital, and superintended by Europeans. In the southern part of Rungpore silk culture is carried on, but the cocoons are chiefly exported to Bogra and Rajshahye. In the district of Rajshahye it is said that the average outturn of the produce of the European filatures would be about 1,920 factory maunds, which at Rs. 25 a seer will give a value of Rs. 19,20,000. The average outturn from native filatures in the same district is estimated at 3,000 maunds, valued, at the rate of Rs. 15 a seer, at Rs. 18,00,000. In Maldah the outturn is estimated at 620 maunds from European factories, of which the value may be Rs. 6,20,000, and 1,500 maunds from factories under native management, valued at Rs. 9,00,000. In Midnapore the value of the silk made in the district is valued at no less than thirty-two lakhs of rupees, and its manufacture is said to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the support of 150,000 people. There are also important silk filatures in the north-east of Beerbhoom.

The silk reeled off in the European factories is exported almost entirely to Europe. That reeled off under native management is generally bought up by native mahajuns, and is sold in Calcutta, Benares, and elsewhere.

At Coomercolly there was once a large silk factory and a brisk trade, the mulberry cultivation extending down to Jessore. On the abolition of the factory the trade fell off, but it is now said to be reviving, and there are at present two small factories in the Jessore district. There are also one or two silk filatures in Nuddea, but the produce is insignificant.

In the province of Assam also silk has been manufactured from a long period, but the export is now not very large.

The manufacture of silk is said to be in a less prosperous condi tion than formerly. It is stated that mulberry lands are in some places already making way for the cultivation of jute. The number of bales of Bengal silk exported during 1872 from Calcutta amounted to nearly nine thousand, which is considerably below the average of previous years. There is annually a large export of shellac and lac-dye from Calcutta. There are lac factories at Elambazaar in the district of Beerbhoom, at Hazareebaugh, in Assam, at Mirzapore in the North-Western Provinces, and at Cossipore in the neighbourhood of Calcutta.

Lac.

The stick lac is brought in by the natives. In this form it consists of small twigs surrounded by cylinders Lac-dye. of translucent orange-yellow gum, in which the insects who deposit it are imbedded. The twigs are then separated from their gummy envelopes, and the gum is scraped and rubbed by hand, till the colouring matter has been thoroughly extracted. This consists of the dead bodies of the insects buried in the gum, and gradually precipitates itself to the bottom of the water. The water is then drained off, and the sediment, after being strained, pressed, and

D

dried, becomes lac-dye ready for the market. The annual export of lac-dye from this Presidency is about 15,000 cwts.

Shellac.

Safflower.

The gummy exudation of the insect in the meanwhile is carefully dried in the sun and melted over a charcoal fire. It is then squeezed out either in thin sheets upon an earthen cylinder, when it becomes shellac, or in dabs upon a plantain stalk, when it is known as button-lac. This kind is considered superior; shellac fetching Rs. 58 and button-lac Rs. 68 the maund. The present market price of lac-dye is Rs. 30 a maund. The annual export of shellac from Calcutta is about 60,000 cwts. Although safflower is not yet an important article of produce in Bengal generally, it is grown for local use and consumption over a great part of the country. From the Behar districts there is a slight exportation to Calcutta. The remainder of the western and the central and southwestern districts produce enough for the local requirements of the population, but do not export. In the country about Dacca, however, there is a very considerable cultivation and export trade. The principal Dacca dealers report the total outturn as from 15,000 to 16,500 maunds, and that of this about 11,000 or 12,000 maunds are the produce of the Dacca district. The remainder is chiefly from Mymensingh, Tipperah, and Furreed pore. If we may take the average value of the dye at Rs. 60 per maund, the value of the exports from this division would in round numbers be from nine to ten lakhs of rupees, of which from six to seven lakhs represent the outturn in the district of Dacca itself. It is probable also that this estimate of the outturn is understated. The cultivation of safflower is said to be largely increasing. The competition, which has of late years so greatly increased in consequence of the establishment of European agents in the interior on behalf of mercantile firms in Calcutta, is annually forcing up the prices of every article of country produce. The producer gets larger profits, while the merchant or exporter gets smaller. The production of safflower is, however, not unattended with anxiety, as it has recently been reported that the supply exceeds the requirements of the English market, and that a substitute has been discovered. The annual export of safflower from Calcutta by sea is from 10 to 20,000 cwts.

India-rubber or caoutchouc

India-rubber.

(ficus elastica) is the inspissated milk or juice of various shrubs and trees only found in a country of moderate climate with a high rainfall. It is common in the forests on the foot of the hills in the Assam frontier. In the Lukhimpore, Durrung, Nowgong, and Naga Hills districts, as well as in the low valleys of the mountains immediately adjoining them, it is most abundant. It is principally manufactured in British territory, but a supply is also imported into Assam, collected by the tribes from beyond the frontier. The right to collect rubber used to be leased out by the Forest Department, but this practice has recently been much restricted in consequence of the difficulties involved in dealing with the tribes. During the hot months a tree yields little, during the cold months but little more, but during the rainy season

it will furnish 50 ozs. of milk giving 15 ozs. of pure caoutchouc. The quantity of India-rubber exported from Calcutta in 1872-73 was 16,149 cwts., valued at Rs. 11,86,852.

Saltpetre is largely refined in the three northern districts of the Patna division, and to a less but still Saltpetre. considerable degree in Patna and Shahabad. It is exported both by rail and river to Calcutta. Last year the quantity of saltpetre exported by river was 621,287 maunds, besides what went down by rail. Like all branches of industry in India, its manufacture is based on a system of advances. The large houses of business contract generally with middlemen, who again give advances to the village Noonyas; these, a poor and hardy race of labourers, rent a small site of saliferous earth, collect the earth into large shallow pans, puddle it, and drain off the water with the saline matter in it into earthen vessels, and then boil and strain it; this is sold to refiners, and a similar process is repeated there. It is in the refineries that the practice of educing salt from the crude saltpetre during the refining process went on, and the salt so educed did, no doubt, get into the market and helped to keep the trade alive. At present the saltpetre trade is not in a flourishing state. It received a severe blow when the duty of Rs. 2 was put on saltpetre twelve years ago, and has never quite recovered. All the Europeans in Behar who were engaged in the business have, with scarcely an exception, withdrawn from it. It is probable that the introduction of the new rules for carrying out Act XXXI of 1861, which are explained in the present year's report, accompanied as they must be by expense and vexation, will close the trade altogether. There is not much, however, to be said in favour of a trade which can only stand if supported, as the saltpetre trade no doubt has been, by the profits of smuggled salt. From the North-Western Provinces much saltpetre is sent down to Calcutta. The Custom returns show that the export of saltpetre from the port of Calcutta is about 400,000 cwts.

Cinchona.

The cinchona cultivation in Bengal has already attained a point which promises success. The plantations were begun some ten years ago at Rungbee, near Darjeeling, in a long narrow Himalayan valley. After more or less doubt and disappointment, the plantation began to thrive in 1867-68, and there are now about 2,000 acres of Government cinchona plantations, in which the trees are from four to thirty feet high, according to their age. The varieties of cinchona which flourish best are the C succirubra and C. calisaya, but there is yet little of the latter. There is also an experimental cultivation at Nunklow, which consists mainly of C. officinalis, a species which had not been found to prosper at Rungbee. The experimental cultivation of ipecacuanha has also been attempted on some land on the lower spurs Ipecacuanha. near Darjeeling, and also on the level land below. The experiment is still in its infancy, but it promises well. The Government forests of Bengal are confined almost entirely to the Cooch Behar and Assam divisions, the Cachar district, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and the Soonderbuns. There is, however, little

Forests.

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