miscellaneous expenses; but the country shopkeepers do not live in better style, or on better food, than the ordinary cultivator.

AGRICULTURE: RICE.-There are four distinct kinds of paddy grown in Pábná District, viz.—(1) Aus, (2) áman, (3) jálí, and (4) boro. Of these, áus is usually grown on high lands; and áman, jálí, and boro on low lands. Aman and áus, however, are sometimes grown on the same description of land. Both these crops are sown in the month of Baisákh (April-May). The áus or early harvest takes place in Bhadra (August-September), before the country is inundated; while the áman or winter rice is left to grow and ripen in the standing water, and is not reaped till the months of Agraháyan and Paush (November-January).

The names of the chief varieties of áman rice grown in the District are—(1) Soná ájul, (2) digá, (3) jankarái, (4) kálá-digá, (5) bháuládigá, (6) kálájirá, (7) jhul, (8) nalas, (9) bánsiráj, (10) kachuá, (11) rájpal, (12) árániá, (13) kákuá. The varieties of áus rice are—(1) kálagoriá, (2) kádnas, (3) muktáhár, (4) báliábakri, (5) nayáchur.

The boro rice or spring crop is chiefly grown on the edges of jhils or marshes, and on chars or low-lying alluvial lands. It is sown in the month of Mágh (January-February), and reaped in Chaitra and Baisakh (March-May). The jali (or wet-land) rice is sown and reaped at the same time as the preceding.

The following are the names given to rice at the various stages of its growth:-At the time of sowing it is called bunáni; when just sprouting, ankurit; while the plants are small, chárá; when the ears appear, thor; when it is ripe, pakká; and after it has been cut, dhán. The operation of thrashing is called malan; that of separating the chaff from the grain, jhárá; boiling is called siddhakará. The operation of drying is called sukhán; and husking, nishtushkará.

THE DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS OF RICE include the following :Chirá consists of paddy, boiled, fried, pressed, and husked; it is sold at the rate of 1 ánná per ser, or d. per pound. Chirá bhájá is chirá fried after husking; sold at 2 ánnás 3 pies per ser, or 12d. per pound. Khai is paddy fried and husked; sold at 1 ánná 9 pies per ser, or 11d. per pound. Hurum or muri is rice roasted on hot sand and sifted; sold at 2 ánnás per ser, or 1d. per pound. Chául bhájá is rice. roasted; sold at 1 ánná 9 pies per ser, or 14d. per pound. Chául pitha are rice cakes; sold at 2 ánnás per ser, or 1d. per pound. Chául rúti is rice bread; sold at 2 ánnás per ser, or 1d. per

pound. Moyá is khai sweetened, pressed, and made into balls ; sold at 2 ánnás 6 pies per ser, or 13d. per pound. Pachwái, or cheap rice beer, is drunk by the palanquin-bearers and low castes. Amáni, the imperfectly fermented liquid in which boiled rice, changed daily, has been standing for two or three days, is prepared by people for their own use, but is not sold.

THE OTHER CEREALS grown in the District are-wheat and barley, both sown in Kártik and Agraháyan (October-December), and reaped in Chaitra (March-April); Indian corn, sown in Baisakh (April-May), at the same time as both the áus and áman rice crops, but reaped even before the áus, in Ashár (June-July); káun and bhurá, both sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped. in Srában (July-August).

THE GREEN CROPS are gram, peas, kalái, khesárí, musuri, múg, all sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Chaitra (March-April); arhar, sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Phálgun (February-March); linseed, rái, and mustard, all three sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Mágh (January-February); til (Sesamum) of two kinds, the one sown in Bhadra (August-September), and reaped in Paush (December-January), the other sown in Phálgun (February-March), and reaped in Jaishtha and Ashár (May-July); chiná, sown in Paush (December-January), and reaped in Phálgun (FebruaryMarch).

THE FIBRES Comprise jute and flax, both generally sown in Baisakh (April-May), and reaped in Ashár and Srában (June-August); and two kinds of hemp, one of which is sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Phálgun and Chaitra (February-April); the other is sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Ashár and Srában (June-August).

THE MISCELLANEOUS CROPS are indigo, sown in Aswin and Kártik (September-November), and reaped in Jaishtha and Ashár (MayJuly); pán or betel-leaf, sown in Phálgun and Chaitra (FebruaryApril), and cut at all seasons; haldi or turmeric, sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Paush and Mágh (December-February); ikshu or sugar-cane, sown in Phálgun (February-March), and reaped in Paush and Mágh (December-February); tobacco, sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Mágh and Phálgun (January-March); onions, sown in Mágh (JanuaryFebruary), and reaped in Jaishtha (May-June). Besides the fore

going staple crops, the District also produces ginger, mangoes, pineapples, the castor-oil plant, báigun, potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, wood-apples, limes, beans, coriander seed, pomegranate, plantains, jack-fruit, dates, plums, chillies, lichis, cocoa-nuts, karelá, guavas, garlic, nuts, water-melons, and tamarinds.

JUTE CULTIVATION.-The jute plant (Corchorus capsularis), known to the natives as koshtá and pát, has been cultivated in the District of Pábná from time immemorial. Hemp is only used for making fishermen's nets and tow-ropes, while jute supplies its place for all other purposes. Every house is built with mats and bamboos fastened together by jute; every cow is tethered by a jute rope. The average annual consumption of jute by a Pábná household, according to the Subdivisional Officer of Sirajganj, may be estimated at half a maund (41 lbs.). Until about the year 1865, no more jute was grown than was necessary to satisfy this local demand. The steady rise, however, since that date in the price of the fibre has induced the rayats to cultivate it for export; and when in 1870-71 the rate rose to Rs. 5. 8. o per maund, or 14s. 114d. per hundredweight, the profits made were so large that considerable additions were at once made to the area under jute cultivation. The Collector estimates that during the year 1872, 192 square miles, or 104 of the District area, was given up to jute. But the cultivation of the fibre could not be maintained to this extent, except at the abnormally high rates of 1871; and the subsequent fall in the price of jute led to a great reduction in the area under cultivation during 1873 and the following year.

'In Pábná,' the Collector reports, as in other Districts, jute grows best on land just above the flood level, where there is always moisture, but seldom any accumulation of water. Such land is of the quality known to Revenue officers as awal, the highest assessed.' A moist season is the best suited to the cultivation. The growth of the plant is greatly stimulated by frequent showers, but floods or very violent rains injure the stems, the portion of the plant under water becoming hardened. Jute is an exhausting crop, and pulses cannot be sown in the cold season on jute land. Jute cannot be profitably grown for two years in succession on the same land; and it is, therefore, usually sown in rotation with til (Sesamum) and áman rice. Jute land in Pábná District is too valuable to be allowed to lie fallow in order that it may recover its strength.

The following account of the mode of cultivation and the prepara

tion of this fibre, is compiled from a Report written by the Collector in 1873. Land for the cultivation of jute is ploughed and harrowed, and the clods are broken in the same way as in preparing the ground for rice. Manure is seldom used. The seeds are sown broadcast, from the latter part of February till the first week in May. When the plants grow up, they have to be thinned and the ground weeded. Great care must also be taken in guarding against the ravages of a most destructive insect, called bichhá. When the plants obtain their full height, and before the fibre has hardened from over ripeness, the crop is cut down close to the ground. The usual time for cutting jute is from July to October. The next process, after the jute has been cut down and made into bundles, is to steep it in water for from seven to fifteen days. For this purpose, stagnant and not running water is almost invariably used; and during the operation, selected plants are from time to time examined by the cultivators. As soon as they have been steeped long enough, the stalks are removed from the water; they are then broken with a mallet at the top, and the wood snapped in the middle. The fibre is removed by the hand, cleaned and dried on bamboo supports. After this the jute is made up in hanks, and is then ready for the market. The cultivators in the Sirajganj Subdivision make over their jute to the bepárís, or dealers in the interior; and the bepárís sell it again to the mahájans, or large merchants and money-lenders. In the Headquarters Subdivision, páikárs take the place of the bepárís. The Collector, in 1873, estimated that rather more than half the population of the Sirajganj Subdivision, and about one-tenth of the population of the remainder of the District, are employed in jute cultivation. The cost of production per acre may, according to the Collector's Report, be estimated at 12 ánnás or is. 6d. for seeds; Rs. 3 or 6s. for rent; and Rs. 27 or £2, 145. od. on account of labourers' wages; giving a total outlay of Rs. 30. 12. 0 or £3, Is. 6d. per acre. The produce of an acre of land under jute cultivation varies from 12 to 36 maunds (8.8 to 26'5 hundredweights); the average yield is estimated at 7 maunds per bighá, or 15-4 hundredweights per acre. The average price of jute of the best quality at Sirajganj during the ten years ending 1872 was Rs. 4 per maund, or 10s. 10дd. per hundredweight; jute of medium quality, Rs. 3. 8. o per maund, or 9s. 6d. per hundredweight; and inferior jute, Rs. 3 per maund, or 8s. 2d. per hundredweight.

Further information as to the amount of jute imported to and

exported from the District, and as to the mode in which the traffic is conducted, is given under the heads River Traffic, and Trade and Commerce, on pages 275, 293-95, 307, 309, 316, 331, 340-46.

AREA UNDER CULTIVATION; OUT-TURN OF CROPS.-The total area assessed for the payment of land revenue in Pábná District amounted, according to the Collector's Return on the 31st March 1875, to 1318 square miles 632 acres (854,152 acres); of which area, 1147 square miles 145 acres, or 87 per cent. of the total area assessed, was under cultivation. The remaining 171 square miles 487 acres comprised 92 square miles 255 acres of grazing lands, 38 square miles 534 acres of cultivable waste, and 40 square miles 338 acres of uncultivable waste. From a consideration of the known details of a tract of land, chosen as representing fairly the physical characteristics of the whole District, the Collector reported in October 1875, that of the cultivable land of the District, threefourths is under food crops, and one-fourth under jute and other staples.' Of the area devoted to the cultivation of food crops, seven-eighths is reported to be under rice cultivation, one-eighth only being reserved for other food crops. The area sown with jute in the year 1872, when the cultivation of this fibre was at its height, was reported to be 192 square miles; of which 123 square miles, or 78,720 acres, were situated within the Sirajganj Subdivision, and 69 square miles, or 44,160 acres, in the Headquarters Subdivision.

Most of the cultivated land in the District is of the class commonly known as do-fasli, that is, land yielding two crops in succession-dhán or paddy, and a cold-weather crop. The Collector reported in 1871 that the produce of a bigha of land, paying Rs. 1. 8. o as rent, may be estimated as follows :—áman dhán, 5 maunds, value Rs. 5; áus dhán, 4 maunds, value Rs. 3; coldweather crops, 1 maunds, value Rs. 4. 8. o. The value of the total out-turn is thus Rs. 12. 8. o per bighá, or £3, 15s. od. per acre. POSITION OF THE CULTIVATORS.-A cultivator's holding is regarded as a large one if its area is as much as 32 bighás or 10% A holding only half this size is looked upon as a comfortable farm, but one of 8 bighás or 2 acres is decidedly small. Two pairs of oxen, if good, can plough about 16 bighás or 5 acres of land; but in the Sirajganj Subdivision, on account of the small size of the cattle, they are reported not to be able to plough so much. Four oxen to a plough are generally used in the District; but one pair of strong oxen is sometimes made, though with diffi

acres.

VOL. IX.

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