thirdly, turmeric must not be grown on the same land for more than two successive years.

NATURAL CALAMITIES: BLIGHTS.-The crops of the District have never been materially injured by blight, although particular crops, in small portions of the District, frequently suffer from the attacks of insects. In the year 1876, grasshoppers (pharing) were very destructive; and in 1870, an insect called medá poká is reported to have destroyed the kalái and mustard crops at Sháhzádpur.

FLOODS.-The Padma, Jamuná, and Haráságar annually overflow their banks during the rainy season, and inundate the country ; but the Collector reports that no inundation causing general loss. has occurred within the memory of persons now living. There are no embankments in the District to restrain the rivers within narrow and definite limits; and the Collector states that none are needed. The rivers flow over the whole country as soon as they have filled their natural channels.

DROUGHTS.-The years 1866 and 1873 are the only ones within memory in which the drought was sufficiently severe to cause any approach to scarcity in the District. The failure of the crops in both these years was caused by the deficiency in the rainfall; but droughts are of such rare occurrence that no irrigation works have been constructed, and the Collector reports that none are needed.

ORISSA FAMINE OF 1866.-During 1866-67, the year of the Orissa famine, the price of common unhusked paddy in Pábná reached Rs. 2 per maund, or 5s. 54d. per hundredweight; and the price of common husked rice, Rs. 3. 14. 0 per maund, or 10s. 6d. per hundredweight. No Government relief operations were, however, thought necessary, and none were undertaken. The Collector stated in 1871 that prices had not even then returned to the rates prevalent before the scarcity.

SCARCITY OF 1874.-During the year of the scarcity in Behar and Northern Bengal (1874), it was anticipated from the failure of the crops that there would be great distress in Pábná District. The rice harvests, both áus and áman, were reported to have yielded only half an average crop, while the out-turn of pulses was estimated at five-sixths of that of an ordinary year. Relief measures were organized by the local authorities under Government orders. Charitable aid, both in the shape of cooked and uncooked food, was given to those who were unable to work, advances were made to cultivators through their landlords, and relief works were

opened to give employment to the able-bodied poor. Although, as the Magistrate reported to Government, the distress prevailing in the District did not anywhere approach an actual famine, still, during three months of scarcity the condition of the people was very critical. The Subdivisional officer at Sirajganj reported in May 1874 that many of the cultivators in the two most distressed police circles were living on insufficient food, and that some of them were in an emaciated condition. Those cases in which charitable relief was given would have probably ended in starvation, had Government aid not been afforded. The recipients of relief consisted chiefly of widows with families, sick labourers, old men without children, and others who in England would find their way to the poor-house, but who in Bengal are in ordinary years supported by their neighbours. During the latter half of the month of May 1874, the average price of common husked rice in the Ráiganj police circle was Rs. 5. 5. 4 per maund, or 14s. 6d. per hundredweight; and at one time the price rose to Rs. 6. 10. 8 per maund, or 18s. 1d. per hundredweight. Even wholesale purchases were made at Sirájganj at the rate of Rs. 4 per maund, or Ios. 10 d. per hundredweight; and at Ullápárá at Rs. 4. 4. o per maund, or 11s. 6d. per hundredweight. The average price of common husked rice in the Headquarters Subdivision during May 1874 was Rs. 3. 1. o per maund, or 8s. 4d. per hundredweight; and in the Sirajganj Subdivision, Rs. 3. 9. 2 per maund, or 9s. 81d. per hundredweight; the average price throughout the District in a good year during the same month being Rs. 1. 8. 6 per maund, or 4s. 2d. per hundredweight.

The total cost of the charitable relief given by or through Government in 1874 was Rs. 82,919. 2. 5; the amount spent on roads and relief works was Rs. 27,704. 13. 0, making a total famine outlay of Rs. 110,623. 15. 5, or £11,062, 75. 11d. In addition to this expenditure, Rs. 75,702. 5. 9 or £7570, 4s. 84d. in money and grain was advanced to cultivators through their landlords, from whom security was taken for the repayment of the loans.

FAMINE WARNINGS.-The famine point, the Collector reported in 1874, may be said to be reached when rice sells in January for more than Rs. 4 per maund, or 10s. 10d. per hundredweight; but however high prices may rise, grain will always be procurable in Pábná District. The facilities for import by the Eastern Bengal Railway and by water are so great, that, as long as the resources

and credit of the people are not exhausted, food can always be readily obtained. The cultivators depend chiefly on the áman rice crop, but although its total failure would inevitably cause scarcity in the District, there could not be a famine unless the failed also.

áus crop

By the extension of jute cultivation, a considerable amount of rice land has been withdrawn from the area devoted to food crops, thus rendering the people less dependent than formerly on the local supply. The District of Pábná, as has already been stated, is only in a small degree exposed to the danger of famine; but if it should at any time suffer from that calamity, it will undoubtedly be a great advantage that a large portion of the soil is devoted to a crop not grown for local consumption but for export. The jute might succeed when the rice failed, and the rayat would then have something wherewith to purchase food.

FOREIGN AND ABSENTEE PROPRIETORS.-The Collector reported in 1871, that out of a total of 2003 proprietors, six Europeans were registered on the rent-roll of the District, and paid a revenue of Rs. 18,854, or £1885, 8s. od. Most of the large proprietors are Hindus, but there are also many important Muhammadan landholders, and the largest landowner in the District is a Musalmán. The number of Muhammadan proprietors in 1871 was 147, and the land revenue paid by them was Rs. 19,863, or £1986, 6s. od. Large portions of the District are owned by non-resident landlords, of whom there are about 99. The aggregate Government revenue paid by them amounted in 1871 to Rs. 135,692, or £13,569, 4s. od.

ROADS and Other Means of CommuNICATION.—There is a great want of roads in Pábná District, and it is difficult to supply the deficiency. The many rivers, bíls, marshy and low lands, render it impossible, without very great expense, to construct permanent roads. It is, indeed, seldom that a highway can be constructed between one important place and another, without so large a break as to render it almost useless. The longest road in the District is the Rájsháhí Road, about 30 miles in length, stretching in a north-westerly direction from Pábná to the boundary of the District. The road between Pábná and Sirajganj is incomplete, extending only about 19 miles from Pábná to Dhulori on the one side, and on the other side from Sirajganj to Gámtail, a distance of about 7 miles. All the intermediate country is too low for a road; during the rains it is

flooded with water, which for many miles is as much as twenty feet in depth. This break in the Pábná and Sirajganj Road extends for a distance of about 31 miles in length. The Dogáchhí Road, from Pábná to Dogáchhí, is 6 miles in length, and is metalled for a distance of about two miles, beginning from Pábná town. The Tántihand Road branches off from the Dogáchhí Road, and extends for 10 miles to the village of Tántihand. This road was undertaken in 1869, at the instance of the chaudharis of Tántihand, who agreed to contribute Rs. 1000 or £100 towards its construction. The Bajitpur Road is 5 miles in length, from Pábná town to Bájitpur ghát, on the Padma. This road was made as a substitute for the Bhawanipur Road, which terminated about one mile farther down the Padma, and was destroyed by the high floods of the year 1871. The first important road in the Subdivision of Sirajganj was begun in 1874. It will extend from Sirajganj to Chándáikoná, a village on the boundary of the District, and about half-way between Bográ town and Sirajganj. From Chándáikoná to Bográ there is already an excellent road. The town of Pábná is well provided with metalled and other roads, a list of the principal of which has been given on page 292 of this Statistical Account. Many of them, however, are now (1876) in need of repair.

The Collector reported in 1871 that the annual cost for construction and maintenance of the District roads was about Rs. 20,500, or £2050. The amount expended in 1874-75 was Rs. 18,512. 2. 6, or £1851, 4s. 3d. All the roads in the District are under the local authorities; and the Collector reports that improvements will be made as soon as the funds collected under the District Road Cess Act (Act x. of 1871, Bengal Council), are available. The amount for which the landowners of the District have been approximately assessed under that Act is Rs. 25,000, or £2500.

According to a return submitted by the Collector for the year 1873-74, there are in the District 126 miles of rivers navigable throughout the year, besides 68 miles navigable during a portion of the year. The total length of the District roads was returned at 124 miles, of which 6 miles are classed as roads of the 1st class, 86 miles as of the 2d class, and 32 miles as of the 3d class.

An account of the ferries in the District has already been given on pp. 272-273. The Collector reported in 1871 that there is only one canal in the District. It is situated at Sirajganj, and was

originally a natural water-course connecting the Jamuná and Dhánbándi rivers, but it was deepened in order to save a detour of about ten miles. This canal is one mile long, 10 feet deep, and 35 feet broad.

There is at present no railway in any part of the District; but the Northern Bengal State Railway, now (1876) in course of construction, will pass through the District for a distance of about five miles. The only station in Pábná District will be at Sárá, a village close to the bank of the Ganges or Padma. It is intended that a steamer shall ply as a ferry across the river, and thus connect the new line north of the Padma, with Porádah, a station on the Eastern Bengal Railway.

MANUFACTURES: INDIGO.-Until 1860, the cultivation and manufacture of indigo were extensively carried on throughout the District of Pábná; and it was hardly possible to travel four or five miles in any direction without passing at least one indigo factory or out-work in charge of a European or native manager. Nearly all these factories are now closed. Many have fallen into complete or partial ruin, while others, although still standing, have been abandoned by their owners. The determined and persistent opposition of the cultivators and labourers of the District rendered it impossible for the majority of the planters to grow and manufacture indigo at a profit; and only about 15,000 bíghás, or 5000 acres, are now devoted to its cultivation. The factory yielding the largest out-turn is Mánjípárá Kuthi, situated in the town of Pábná, on the left bank of the river Ichhámatí. The total annual yield of the District is estimated at an average of only 400 maunds of indigo. The manufacture is conducted as in other parts of Bengal. The plants are first steeped in water for some hours, and the coloured water is then drawn off into another vat, where it is beaten and turned with wooden shovels. The next process is to boil the water, and strain it through a large sheet, the result being that grains of indigo are left above the sheet, while the water, deprived of the indigo suspended in it, passes through. This operation of straining is repeated until all the indigo has been removed; the deposit on the sheet is then collected together, pressed, cut up into small blocks, and dried. The whole quantity manufactured in the District is exported to Calcutta, and any of the dye required for local use is imported. Nearly all the indigo grown in Pábná is cultivated by hired labour, and is sown on lands held by the planter himself. The practice of