ORYZA sativa. CULTIVATION Available Surplus and investigations in the following introductory remarks:- "I submit that in rural Behar and Bengal a quantity of food-grain, equal to the absolute wants of the people during the intervals between harvests, is always in the district. The people must live, and all experience teaches the lesson that they, or, what for my purpose is the same thing, their mahajuns, keep in stock a provision at least sufficient to carry them on from one harvest to another. The inter-harvest periods being short, people will not run the risk of impairing, by exportation, the sufficiency of this provision, unless simultaneous importation, altering possibly the composition of the provision, leaves its absolute magnitude unaltered. "Now, necessary and usual as is the retention of a portion of each crop for subsistence till the next crop comes in, the disposal of another portion to pay rent is, as things go in Behar and Bengal, as necessary and imperative. Everywhere a very considerable portion of the cultivator's rent is paid from the sale-proceeds of food-grain; and the grain on which the rent is thus financed for is, I submit, over and above the provision for subsistence made from each crop, and referred to in the last paragaph. In the case of those cultivators who lock up in their own store-rooms the provision necessary to carry them over the interval before next harvest, this is obviously so; it is less obvious, but not less true, in the case of the needy classes who are in the mahajun's hands. For it is manifest that if a rayat of this latter description be only partially indebted, his partial independence, like the greater independence of his well-to-do neighbour, will show itself in the reservation of some provision for the immediate future; the grain, therefore, on which he finances for rent will be over and above that provision. If he be wholly in the mahajun's hands, the food-supply necessary for his subsistence, and for rent payment alike, goes to the mahajun. But as the latter must, and does, support the rayat under pain of losing his principal and interest together, it comes to the same thing in the end, as if the rayat had, with the mahajun's sanction, retained the provision for subsistence and made over the rent-grain. "In fine, it is, I submit, a proposition generally true that the minimum food-supply, necessary to support from harvest to harvest a district, which is a surplus-producing district, may be, in considerations dealing with the disposal of such surplus, looked on as a fixed quantity, and, with the wants it supplies, eliminated from the argument. On "With a view to tracing out the manner in which this surplus is disposed of, it next became requisite to determine the quantity of foodgrain which in each district is thrown on the market in financing for rent. To the solution of the question it was necessary to know, first, the actual amount of rent liquidated from the sale-proceeds of food grain; secondly, the average prices at which food-grain is sold to realize this amount. both points local enquiry was necessary, and these local enquiries were, at my request, conducted by the various district officers and the results communicated to me. The results are interesting and valuable, not only as far as the purpose in hand is concerned, but also as suggestive of trains of enquiry which will doubtless be followed up. "Conjoined with the question of the proportion of the rent liquidated by the sale-proceeds of food-grain was the determination of the gross rental of each district. In those districts which enjoy the advantages of the Road Cess Act this was an easy matter; but in those districts into which the Act has not been, or was being, introduced there was some slight difficulty. I think, however, the difficulty has been surmounted, and that each section, in which the information was of use, contains a close approximation to the aggregate rents collected by zemindars in the particular district. I may note, in passing, that the rental of every district is very Reserved Stocks in Bengal. ORYZA (G. Watt.) sativa. disproportionately large compared with the amount which, in the shape CULTIVATION of land revenue, such district contributes to the imperial exchequer. "The determination of the share of rent liquidated by the sale-proceeds of food-grain, the ascertainment of the actual amount of this share in cash, and the knowledge of the average rates at which food-grain is sold, rendered the calculation of the quantity so sold a matter of no difficulty. The point thus reached, or the knowledge thus acquired, enabled me to make a tripartite division of the local food-grain supply into (a) the supply necessary for absolute wants, (b) the supply necessary to liquidate rent claims, (c) the residue, if any. This brought me to the consideration of the questions of district trade and stocks in hand, questions of high importance, but regarding which there is a complete want of precise information. This want will, it is hoped, be supplied when our present system of inter-district trade regisiration shall have surmounted the difficulties incidental to all new arrangements. At present, however, the information to be gathered from this source is interesting, more for the promise of improvement it holds out, than for its intrinsic worth; more for the light it throws on the nature of the various commodities in which each district trades, than for the precision with which it gauges the magnitude of such trade. "It was, however, necessary for me to estimate the extent to which food-grain is kept in stock in each district, and this necessarily involved the question of the district's trade in that commodity. Impelled by this necessity on the one hand, and having in ascertained facts but a slender and not often significant basis for argument on the other, I was obliged to have recourse to speculation to supplement the points in which actual experience was defective. For the speculation I venture to make, I claim no further value than that it affords some clue to an opinion on matters confessedly obscure and intricate. I venture to suggest that in a district which produces a surplus, the quantity of grain sold to pay rent charges forms the grain fund as it were, from which exportations are in the first instance made. The terms of the argument, if I be permitted to dignify the speculation by such a name, presuppose a surplus, portion of which is sold to defray rent, and the sequel will show that every district with which I shall deal, except one, produces such a surplus. The grain, therefore, sold to pay rent is over and above the quantity required for consumption, and over and above a quantity which exists in addition and is held in reserve. In proportion to the sufficiency of this quantity held in reserve, the grain which, in liquidation of rent charges, passes into the grain-dealer's hands is in the home market a drug, and in ordinary years continues to be so. There being no market for it at home, it being superfluous as a reserve, it must be exported. "But seeing that a residue still exists, in addition both to the provision for subsistence and to this grain on which the rent is financed for; seeing that this residue, or a large portion of it, comes sooner or later into the grain-dealer's hands, whether in satisfaction of debts, or in financing for other wants, it is not fanciful to say that it is from the rent-grain exportation is first made, and not from the residue. How can a distinction be drawn? To this I answer, that the certainty (as I shall demonstrate) with which at fixed seasons grain is thrown on the market to meet rent charges, and the fact that at these seasons, immediately following each harvest, prices are cheaper than at other times, induce traders to buy in and export. This fact then indicates a distinction. The grain sold to pay rent is sold at stated times and at cheap prices; the grain sold for other necessities not so pressing is sold at various times and at dearer prices. Traders from outside (who carry on a large business this way), in Bengal Surplus. ORYZA sativa. CULTIVATION in Bengal. Surplus. Provincial methods. 320 Eastern and Central Dacca. 321 Rice Cultivation or home traders who supply foreign demand, will certainly export first the grain which affords the largest margin to cover profit and expenses. Afterwards, if the demand be greater than they can supply from this stock, they will export other grain, which, bought up by them at more unfavourable times and dearer prices, affords less of a profit. "There are special circumstances in connection with the rice cultivation and export trade of North Behar which support the speculation that the grain sold to pay rents is all exported, but those special circumstances will come more properly under the districts in which they occur. Here I shall sum up by stating that in every district of which I have treated, the grain sold cheapest is the grain sold to pay rents; and that as this will give the largest profit in foreign markets, it is the grain which is probably first exported; i.e., the minimum exportation of ordinary years, if the district reserves permit of its being all exported. "Then arose the question-Is the residue of the year's surplus the maximum quantity reserved? If not, what is the limit of accumulation of reserves, and how is this limit maintained? "Suppose that a surplus-producing district this year holds 50,000 tons of grain in reserve, and that next year's harvests are average harvestsWill these 50,000 tons which have not been drawn on this year be added to the reserve the ensuing year furnishes afresh? And, if so, where is this accumulation to stop? These are the most abstruse, as they are among the most important questions of district economy. "I cannot undertake to summarise the modes of treating them in each case that came up for discussion. Here I shall only say that, if in the case supposed the ensuing year be an average year, there is no doubt the previous year's reserves partly swell the export grain fund; such of them as do not swell the export grain fund are utilized by freer consumption which cheap prices, consequent on the abundant supply, permit; much of them is wasted, grain being a very perishable commodity. In my estimates of production I contemplate a good average year; short years on the one hand, and bumper years on the other, being excluded from the calculation of the average. But short years are of the more frequent recurrence, and those often recurring short seasons are great solvents of surplus accumulations, whose raison d'être is the knowledge, begotten of experience, that short will come. years METHODS OF CULTIVATION, SOWING, REAPING, &c. The chief peculiarities of the Rices of Bengal may be discovered from the following quotations from important works which treat of the main divisions of the province. I.-Eastern and Central Bengal. CULTIVATION OF RICE IN THE DACCA DISTRICT. Mr. A. C. Sen, in his recent Report on the Agriculture of Dacca (pages 28-33), furnishes some useful information regarding rice. He divides them into three crops, sub-dividing each of these again into two sections. His classification may be thus exhibited : Mr. Sen's remarks so fully exemplify the rice culture of a large portion of Eastern Bengal that his account may be quoted freely : Long-stemmed paddy. "This variety of paddy is extensively grown in the Dacca district. The low lands, the sides of jheels, and low plains on which from 5 to 15 feet of water accumulates during the rains are selected for this crop. It has a remarkable power of growth, frequently shooting up to the extent of 12 inches in the course of 24 hours as the inundation rises, and in the case of some varieties, such as rayenda and baoa, attaining a length of from 10 to 20 feet. The greatest dangers to which it can be exposed during the season of inundation are a high and sudden rise of rivers, by which it is overtopped, and a strong current of water, by which whole fields are sometimes uprooted and carried away to long distances. "Soil.-The soil most suited to this variety of paddy is the stiff clay deposited on the bottom and edges of jheels. "Mode of Cultivation.-It has been stated above that the plants sometimes attain a length of even 20 feet. During the harvest, however, the whole plant is not cut off, but only the ears with about one-and-a-half feet of the straw are removed. The lower portion of the straw remains, and is locally known as nara. It is too coarse to be used as fodder even by the cultivators, who are far from being over particular as regards the quality of the food given to their cattle. It is sometimes used as fuel, but in most places it is gathered in heaps in the field and set fire to. The land is immediately after ploughed. This is generally done in December. It is then ploughed once or twice again and left exposed to the sun and rain till Chaitra (15th March to 15th April) when the large clods, of which the field is probably very full, are patiently broken down by the intamugar, and a somewhat rough tilth obtained. Advantage is now taken of a shower of rain to give the field one or two ploughings and harrowings more when the field is ready for sowing. This is generally done at the beginning of Baisakh (15th April to 15th May). About 15 seers of paddy is broadcasted over a bigha of land. "In the moist low-lying places where water begins to accumulate early in Baisakh, the sowing cannot be so long delayed. The varieties of the long-stemmed paddy grown in such places are the rayenda and baoa, and these are sown at the end of Magh or early in Falgoon (15th February to 15th March). The harvest time is the same as that for other varieties of áman paddy, namely, Aghan-Pous (15th November to 15th January), so that these varieties of paddy remain in the field for ten months in the year. "The seeds germinate in four or five days, when the field is rolled twice with the ladder. After the plants have attained a height of 4 to 5 inches, the soil is loosened by the rake, which also serves to thin the crop. After this the only operation to be done till the harvest time comes is a weeding. In some places even this weeding is done away with. The crop is ready for the harvest in Aghan. The yield per bigha varies between 3 to 12 maunds. The average will be about four and-a-half maunds." Aman and Aus mixed. "In many places in the district it is customary to sow áman and áus together in the same field. The advantage of this system is that if one of the crops fail, the ryot can rely on the other. In an unusually favourable year, even two full crops may this way be obtained from the same field in a single season, but generally a half crop of paddy, and a 12-anna crop of áman are got this way. "Tillage.-The straw of the previous year's crop is collected in heaps, and burnt, and the field is ploughed. If the ground is sufficiently dry, the plough is followed hy the ladder, otherwise a ploughing only is given. This is generally done in Magh (15th January to 15th February). After an interval of two to ten days the field is cross-ploughed, and the ladder is used twice. After three or four ploughings more bave been given, the land becomes ready for sowing, which is generally done in Central CULTIVATION: Eastern & Bengal. Dacca. Long Stemmed. 322 Mixed. 323 ORYZA sativa. CULTIVA- Eastern & Dacca. 324 Rice Cultivation Chaitra. Twelve seers of áus are mixed with 6 seers of áman and sown broadcast over a bigha of land. The sowing is preceded by a ploughing, and followed by a ploughing and two rollings with the ladder. The seeds germinate in two to three days when the field is once ploughed, and twice rolled with the ladder. This process is technically termed ubhani. After about five or six days, the ladder islagain used with the object of crushing the clods, or more properly shaking them a little, so that the seedlings below them may have an opportunity of coming out. This operation is termed batar. The interval between the ubhani and batar is longer when the field is dry, for in such a field the shoots are longer in appearing when the seedlings come above the clods, and the field looks green, the ladder is used once more, and this operation is termed jaoai, and it is done with the object of thinning the crops, as well as by somewhat checking the upward growth, of making the plants stronger at the bottom The jaoai is followed by a harrowing with the rake. After about six days the field is weeded. A second weeding is sometimes given in about a fortnight. The aus is reaped in Ashar (15th June to 15th July). During the rains, when the jhara (wild rice) paddy makes its appearance, this is pushed below the water with the aid of a piece of bamboo, so as to make it rot there, for otherwise the whole field would be choked up. This process is termed dagao. "N.B.-When the same variety of paddy is sown successively more than two years on the same field, it degenerates into a wild paddy, which has the peculiarity of shedding the grain on the slightest touch, and hence it is known as jhara. The ihara paddy can hardly be distinguished from the wild paddy, growing in the jheels of the Madhupur jungle. "Diseases.-There are several kinds of insects that do considerable injury to the paddy crop. One of them, known as panari, eats away the green leaves of the plant. Another black insect attacks the crop when the ears are just forming, and hundreds of fields are sometimes lost this way. The pest generally shows itself when no rain falls for days together in Kartik. Storms in the month of Kartik also prove injurious to the crop. "The transplanted paddy is grown in the district in two different classes of land, namely, in the upper reaches of the valleys of the Madhupur jungle and in the comparatively high and old dearahs of the Brahmaputra and its branches. The paddy grown in the Madhupur valleys is a special variety, and is known under the name of shaldan; the transplanted paddy of other places goes by the general name of rowa or transplanted. The mode of cultivation followed there does not materially differ from that prevalent in West Burdwan; only it is somewhat simpler. "Nursery.-Seedlings are prepared in a nursery, for which a plot of suitable land is selected, either close to the rayat's homestead or in a corner of the field to be afterwards transplanted. It is ploughed four or five times in Baisakh, and in Feith, as soon as a little rain-water has collected on it, the lepichanga is past over it several times, so as to have the ground regularly plastered. While the preparation of the nursery land is going on, the necessary quantity of seed (6 seers for every bigha of land to be transplanted with) is weighed and soaked in an earthen pot for 24 hours. It is then drained and kept in a corner of the house covered with mats, leaves, &c., and weighted. The seed begins to germinate in two to three days, when it is sown broadcast so thickly that the grains somewhat overlap one another. The seed is not covered with the earth. When the seedlings are from a foot to 18 inches high, they are fit for transplantation. "Tillage.-In case of the jungle valleys, the first thing to attend to is to repair the embankments thrown across the valleys for collecting water. The field is prepared! by ploughing it in the mud two or three times. The seedlings are then transplantea about half a cubit apart either way, putting in three to four plants in the same place. The transplantation is generally done about the 15th of Sravan. The paddy is generally harvested in Aghan. It is better to do this as early as possible, for otherwise great damage is sometimes done by boars, monkeys, and other wild animals. In the case of the dearah land, about two ploughings are given in the dry field. This is done as soon as the previous crop, generally khesari, is off the ground. On such lands two rain crops are sometimes grown in the same field in the same season. As early as possible the field is sown with jute or aus paddy, generally of the shaita variety. The jute or the paddy is harvested early in Sravan, and then the field is immediately ploughed two to three times and transplanted with the aman paddy. The aman under such treatment seldom yields a full crop." |