INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 9 



the poorest and most unprofitable soils, the general average of returns 

 per acre diminished. The estimate of the cultivator was formerly 

 based on the return of the better lands ; he has now to include 

 much inferior soil, but has not proportionately reduced his 

 expectations. 



The following causes, however, may have operated to decrease the 

 actual out-turn of land in cultivation. A consequence of the payment 

 of assessment by registered holdings instead of by actual cultivation 

 is the discouragement of fallows. The ryot having nothing to pay 

 for his wastes could well afford to let his land rest and cultivate 

 portions in rotation. During the early period of our administra- 

 tion, the lands of this region were largely devoted to grazing purposes, 

 and there was no direct Government demand upon the wastes so used. 

 The encouragement given to cultivation by the survey was accompanied 

 by a discouragement to grazing, through the right of pasture being made 

 subject to purchase from Government. The supply of manure from 

 flocks and herds, the demand for which should have increased with this 

 increase in cultivation, diminished, and doubtless with it must have 

 diminished the fertility of the soil. 



Thus it will be seen that while increasing population demands more 

 from the land than it yielded 40 years ago, the conditions of agri- 

 culture have not tended to increase its fertility, and indebtedness 

 has taken away the natural motive to industry the hope of gain 

 and thereby prevented relief from the increasing pressure being sought 

 in improved cultivation. We are dealing now with the causes of in- 

 debtedness, and have been led to dwell upon one of its consequences ; 

 the case is only an illustration of the familiar fact, that the conse- 

 quences of an evil often tend to reproduce it. 



Another method in which relief from the pressure of increased 



population might naturally be sought is emigra- 

 Emigration as a 



result of increased tion. The habits and instincts of the Kunbi make 



him most averse to leave his village except for a 



short absence, but in a remarkable case in which 19 cultivators 

 with their families, in all 66 persons, most of them inhabitants 

 of Poona District, and many from villages in the area under report, 

 went into Khandesh hoping to find work at Jalgaon, where there 

 is a railway station with large traffic; failing in this they 

 were already on their march to Indore to apply for land under H. H. 



