The above are samples of the Mathena Zabti, Paranpur. It is melancholy enough. But, take the village as a whole, as officially summarised, and the melancholy deepens, while the wonder grows as to how life can be sustained. Particulars which follow will show that fifty per cent. of the gross produce (Government take half of that fifty per cent, as revenue) was taken for rent. The yield from the soil, after rent has been paid, gives Rs.4 1a. 6p. (5s. 51d.) per head per annum towards maintenance, clothing, etc. The cattle apparently save the people, but of these, in

1888, there were only 1,055 against 3,000' some time ago.' A detailed consideration of the following particulars concerning this village, 'which is a typical one in this district,' will well repay the time it takes:

(Of this 52 biswas is do-fasli.) Total value of crops, 3,480.1 Census of residents:-145 men, 140 women, 71 boys, 69 girls.

CATTLE OF RESIDENTS.

According to this the value of the crop is about double the rent. The estimated out-turn seems low, as it averages about two kutcha maunds the pucka bigha, or about 153 lbs. the acre.' [Lord Curzon's average is 740 lbs. the acre.] But the soil is very light. There is no irrigation, and the crops are much eaten by wild animals from the neighbouring forest. There is a great deal of waste land, which gives fairly good grazing, and most of the cultivators make something out of cattle breeding. The cattle are a poor breed, and give very little milk. They do not, however, cost anything to rear.' THE AVERAGE INCOME FROM THE LAND HERE WORKS OUT AT Rs.4 1a. 6p. (5s. 57d.) per HEAD PER ANNUM! !

LOAN MONEY-MARKET UNFAVOURABLE

395

Free grazing in Government forests and in village waste. Free wood and thatching grass.'

Mr. E. B. Alexander, Collector of Etawah, sums up the information furnished by the Tahsildars under the directions issued by his predecessor, Mr. Whiteway. In the course of his remarks Mr. Alexander says:

'On one point the statistics furnished do throw light, and that is the extent to which the cultivators fall in debt in anything like a bad year and the utter absence of any savings laid up in good years beyond a small amount of jewelry and occasionally a few surplus head of cattle. I am not sure that I am not leaving the point of the present inquiry when entering on this subject; but both are so closely connected that I think it is worth while going into this in some detail. The question whether the ordinary cultivator suffers from want of food may, I think, be said to depend entirely upon two factors the general state of the loan market and his own credit, both of which are, of course, dependent in a great measure upon the

seasons.

'In Muttra, for instance, the number of bad debts which moneylenders had made between 1877 and 1883 had caused the money market to be very unfavourable for borrowers; and even men who were known to be honest, and not overwhelmed with debt, had great difficulty in raising money to live on during the two months before each harvest, when nine cultivators out of ten look to their bohra to make them subsistence advances.

'In Mainpuri, on the other hand, the market was favourable, whilst I was there in 1885, and it was only men whose individual credit was bad that had any difficulty in raising such advances.

'In all ordinary years I should say that the cultivators live for at least one-third of the year on such advances, and in unfavourable years they have either to increase the amount of their debt to the bohra, or have to sell off jewelry, cattle, or anything else which can possibly be spared.

'One bad year they can generally weather by sacrifices of this kind and by a comparatively unimportant increase to the debit side of their account. But when there is a succession of unfavourable years, or even a succession of slightly below average years following a bad one, their circumstances rapidly deteriorate. They have no capital to fall back on. The bohra is averse to increasing his already heavy claim by making further advances; and then, no doubt, the average culti vator suffers severely from insufficiency of food.

'There can be no doubt but that in Muttra such deficiency drove a

1. Econ. Inq., N.W.P.,' pp. 112-13. Since then, in all probability, the free grazing, free wood, and free thatching, have been taken away.

large number of cultivators between 1878 and 1883 A.D. to abandon their homes and remove to other parts of the country, where they could get a living by day work, or had friends to support them. Muttra, however, was exceptionally unlucky. For about eight years there were not two really good harvests running, whilst there were twice three bad ones running, and nearly all the rest were below average, or almost only average.'

"This district (Etawah) has, I understood, been through a rather bad time prior to the rabi just harvested (which has been a good crop); and I certainly saw a good many people when I first came here (early in March) whose appearance showed distinctly that they were suffering from insufficiency of food.

'At the present moment I do not suppose that, except absolute paupers who are dependent on alms, any class of the population here is suffering from insufficiency of food.

'I do not, however, on the other hand, think that it is at all probable that most of the persons who borrowed money during 1294 or during the first six months of 1295 have paid off their debts. They have probably paid up enough to meet the interest and to restore their credit, and in many cases have probably redeemed articles which they had pawned; but the bulk of the harvest has gone in meeting arrears of rent, the rent for the rabi, and interest on debt; and if we are to have another bad kharif there would, I am sure, be a great increase of indebtedness which, if accompanied or followed by any great rise in prices, must render it impossible for a large part of the population to obtain sufficient food during the first three months preceding the next rabi.

'The village Marhapur stands on the Jumna ravines, and did not suffer seriously from flooding. There are eighty-seven families, of whom fifty-five are cultivators, about twenty day-labourers, and the other twelve banias or artisans. The fifty-five cultivating households were all in debt at the close of the year for sums varying from Rs.800 to Rs.10, and the day-labourers for sums varying from Rs.18 to Rs.2. Most of the farmers, also, were obliged to part with jewelry or cattle.

'The largest sum actually borrowed in the year was Rs.428 by Chabnath Thakur, a man with a large household of twenty-two persons, six of whom are children under three years old, four children between three and ten, and the other twelve grown up. He cultivates twenty-three and a half acres, and keeps several cattle for use in carts and for milking. He paid his creditor Rs.388 during the year at various times; but as his debt was actually increased by

' Was Muttra so 'exceptionally unlucky'? My examination of Bombay and Madras records show that such experiences are not at all unusual. There are few unirrigated districts in India of which it can be said that there are more good years than bad.-W. D.