314 SEVENTH REPORT—1837, 
wheats, which require watering, and a plot or two of sugar- 
cane. ‘To his garden the cultivator is indebted for many of the 
little enjoyments his situation is susceptible of. In some in- 
stances, in the Mahloongeh Turruff, Poona collectorate, I 
found cultivators paying their entire assessments, and reaping 
profit by their garden produce of chillies* alone, which were 
sent into the Konkun. 
Usually it has been deemed sufficient to arrange Zerhaeet or 
field-land into four elasses, as at Jehoor, namely, Awul (best), 
usually black land, Rehsee (modified black), Burrud (dashed 
with lime and some decomposing greenstone), and finally, 
Khurrud (stony, thin, and poor). The first, throughout the 
country, does net average more than 1 rupee the beegah, the 
second #, the third +2, and the last ,8, of a rupee per beegah ; 
but at other places there are other distinctions. In the Ma- 
wuls, or hilly tracts along the Ghauts, lands are classed as 
Bhat, Khatan, and Wurkus, the first being rice land, the 
second wheat and grain land, and the third being on the slopes 
of hills, producing the dry grains Sawa> and Wuree ;¢ there 
being a great deal of red soil also in these tracts, it is di- 
stinguished by the term Tambut or copper-coloured. The Awul, 
or best, where it occurs, is called Kalwut (black), and the rocky 
and stony Maal. 
These explanations are sufficient to show that where assess-. 
ments on the quality of the land have been introduced, uni- 
formity has not obtained in distinguishing the qualities; they 
show also that the people were satisfied to limit the qualities to 
four gradations; but at Ahmednuggur, the Shaikdar or in- 
spector of cultivation has had the microscopic ability of vision 
to mark twelve shades of difference in the field-land. The ac- 
counts are, in consequence, a mass of perplexity, and it is very 
probable the revenue is frittered away in distinctions which the 
cultivator never dreamt of, and never profits by. 
Field-landg, on which the cultivators sink wells, are not as- 
sessed as garden-lands. At Kanoor, Nuggur collectorate, I 
found lands so circumstanced had been free from any extra 
assessments from a period beyond the memory of man. 
The above notices are sufficient to show the anomalous cha- 
racter of the money assessments strictly on the land. Not only 
are they arbitrarily fixed on the productive power of the land, or 
on measurements, real or supposed ; but lands of the same deno- 
mination and quality are differently assessed in neighbouring 
villages without apparent cause. 
@ Capsicum annuum, and other species. 
> Panicum frumentaceum. © Panicum miliare. 
— 
ain 
