INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 7 



Government, the net produce being in the case of the latter both of 

 much higher value and having the additional advantage of not being 

 received all at once. It has been estimated that the yearly cost 

 of food and necessaries to each member of a Kunbr's family is about 

 Us. 25. Admitting that the food consumed by his family does not 

 cost the ryot the market value, it is nevertheless plain from the figures 

 of estimated yield* of land, that in a year of average rainfall his 

 receipts from six acres two of each kind of soil will leave a very 

 narrow margin for Government assessment and expenses, amongst 

 which the interest on the so whir's loans in bad years must count as 

 a current and unavoidable charge. 



o 



The deficit which frequently exists is made up by the produce of 



Produce of land not st ck and f the dail T> and b 7 the labour f the 

 alone sufficient for the Kunbi and that of his family and his cattle. In 



Kunbi's needs. . i . i -i i 



illustration of this it may be noticed that the 



Collector of Ahmednagar reported that, owing to the drought and 

 failure of crops in 1871, the agricultural population had to a great 

 extent left their villages in search of labour for their maintenance. 

 This exported labour must be looked upon as maintaining the solvency 

 of the district, for little else is exported. The railway is not used for 

 the export of produce. As stated by the Superintendent of Survey 

 regarding the ryots of Bhimthari District, the practice is to save the 

 surplus of a good season to meet the deficiencies of bad years. A little 

 produce is sent to Poona in carts for local consumption, but the food 

 grain of the region is consumed by the inhabitants. 



The normal effect of a pressure of population upon land is that, so 

 soon as extended cultivation has reached the 



Industry and enter- 

 prise being discouraged limit of profitableness, the cultivating class 

 by pressure of debt, . 

 production is not in- endeavours by improved agriculture and increased 



industry to obtain more from the soil. This 

 result is under the present conditions not to be looked for here ; on the 

 contrary, there is a widespread belief that land is not so productive as 

 it used to be. That their present state of indebtedness prevents the 

 ryots from making efforts to improve the outturn of their land, there 



