INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 



accordingly, a fresh start was given to the money-lender in his 

 competition with the ryot for the fruits of the soil. The bulk of the 

 people were very poor, and the capital necessary for extended cultivation 

 could only be obtained on the credit of the land and its produce ; exist- 

 ting debt left but little margin of profit to the ryot even under the 

 reduced rate of assessment This margin would go but little way to 

 cover his increased needs for the stock, seed and assessment of new 

 cultivation. While his return in produce for the first year or two would 

 be but nominal, even the most cautious could not be expected to 

 wait for accumulation of profits to take up fresh land for fear that 

 the more wealthy or reckless should be before-hand with him. This 

 too sudden extension of cultivation following the survey assessment 

 was prominently noticed by Mr. Hart in 1841, and in the Ahmednagar 

 District it was so excessive as to cause a re-action in the third and 

 fourth years after these settlements. 



Incrase of Population. 



The increase of the population taken as a sign of prosperity has 

 been a subject of congratulation with the officers 

 who have recently had to deal with the revision 

 of assessment in the Poona District. It is doubtless a feature in 

 the history of this region which, as much as" any other, marks its 

 changed condition during the last 30 years. The returns show an 

 increase in population of about 45 per cent, in that period, and it is 

 probable that the ratio of increase is progressive rather than uniform, 

 as the spread of vaccination, sanitary precautions and facilities for 

 medical treatment have reduced the virulence of epidemics, and 

 improved communications have made dearths impossible and facilitated 

 access to the markets for labour. Cultivation has reached its limit. 

 The area of six cultivated acres per head of agricultural population 

 must, considering the precariousness of the climate, be taken to mean 

 that the produce of a good season of but three acres is available to 

 each person of the cultivating class, half of the area of six acres 

 being deducted on account of bad seasons, and the average yield 

 being thus reduced to about half a yood crop per annum. 

 Comparing this with Guzerat, where the rainfall is rarely 

 deficient, we find that each member of the ryot's family here 

 has yearly the net produce of three acres of 8 annas assesment, while 

 in Guzerat each person has the produce of two acres of Us. 2-13-4 



assessment, the former 



paying 



Rs. 3, the latter Rs. 5-11, to 



