574 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



The cost of raising an acre of wheat is : 



Rent per acre $3 OC 



Cartage of manure 1 20 



150 pounds of seed 1 (i5 



Plowing twenty times 75 



Sowing by hand 15 



"Watering three times 2 25 



Reaping and carrying fiO 



Thrashing 35 



Winnowing 07 



Total 10 G2 



If the land is not of the very best quality and near to the cultivator's 

 village, the rent would be less than the above rate, sometimes less than 

 half of it. In a full average crop the average yield per acre is 17 bush- 

 els for irrigated land and for dry land 10 bushels. The average price 

 for wheat in the Northwest Provinces and Oudh during the last five 

 years has been 68 cents a bushel. At this rate the 17 bushels would 

 be worth $11.56 and the bhoosa or straw $3, making $14.56, leaviug a 

 profit of but $3.94 an acre; that is, if the farmer hires the work done; 

 otherwise he gets paid for his own labor. Yet at the best he gets but 

 little, as he has to give tithes to the Brahmin, the sweeper, the watch- 

 man of the village, and others. It is most fortunate that fluring two- 

 thirds of the year there is something growing, weeds, vegetables, fruit, 

 or coarser grain of some kind, or these poor people could never pull 

 through. Give them only one crop, as in Minnesota, and one year 

 would end their labors and their lives. These cultivators cannot afford 

 to eat the wheat thej^ raise. When they do eat it it is as a luxury and a 

 treat. Their usual food is the coarser grains, herbs, weeds, vegetables, 

 and cheaper fruits. 



ACREAGE. 

 The area of wheat in the Northwest Provinces and Oudh is : 



Making the normal area 100, then the crop for 1884-'85 is 107, quite 

 an increase over the x^revious year. 



