( 76 ) 



73. I have given under the head of each (principal) crop an estimate 

 of the cost of its production as represented in cash. But it is needless to add 

 that this expenditure of cash is never incurred. In the first place there is the 

 labour of the cultivator, and in the lower classes of his entire family, down to the 

 child of eight or ten years of age. In the next place there is the universal cus- 

 tom of mutual assistance (jitd) ; and if it be replied that at this rate the cultiva- 

 tor does not get the ordinary rate of wage, it should be considered that his 

 labour is not worth it. Where there is demand wages rise at once to the full rate, 

 e.g., in irrigation from canals water-lifters get two annas and one-quarter seer 

 of chabena; or, again, where there is weeding to be done promptly after the rain 

 clears off, but with certain duties to perform, and 365 days in the year in 

 which to do them, the selling value of the cultivator's labour is reduced to a 

 minimum. I repeat, if all the agricultural oparations of the country had to 

 be done in one day ^to reduce the matter ad absurdwri), the demand for labour 

 would be so great that wages would rise to a height inconsistent with any pro- 

 fit : so when the cultivator and his family can perform certain duties, weeding, 

 watering, <fec., at his leisure, to value his labour at ordinary cost price is as good 

 as to say that no crop can be grown at a profit. I propose by three examples 

 of ordinary cultivators to show how the several operations of agriculture fit in 

 to each other and are carried out with the minimum of cash expenditure. To 

 each is attached an abstract of expenditure and receipts. 



74. Take a Chamdr with a wife and three children aged 8, 10, and 12 



years respectively 7 , and give him a holding of 12 bighas 

 Chamdr. 



(about six acres) variously situated, so that he has every 



quality of land, and a pair of plough bullocks, his agricultural operations for 

 the year will be much as follows : Say his year begins from 15th Jeth or 1st 

 June. He will first plaster and thatch his house, which will take him about a 

 week ; he will then employ himself carrying what manure he has to the land 

 which he intends for Indian-corn or cotton. He then waits for rain, which ordi- 

 narily falls in the beginning of Asdrh or end of June. He will then plough for 

 and sow his Indian-corn (1 bigha) ; his family will help, and thiswill take two 

 days. Next he ploughs his field for cotton ( l^ bigha) twice, sows and levels 

 it, taking three days ; in this too his family help. For the next ten days he 

 will plough, sow, and level the fields for jicdr, and then, as leisure offers and 

 the rain clears off, he ploughs his remaining land for rabi. Meanwhile his wife 

 and two children will gradually twice weed the maize, which must be clone by 

 the first week in Sdwan or 20th July. Cotton, however, requires weeding three 

 or four times, at intervals of a week or ten days ; for this hired labour is 

 necessary : 20 men will weed 1 ^ bigha in a day, but as it need not be all done 

 in a day, the wife and two children will weed for three days, and the wages of 

 men for one day. or Re. 1 -0-6, will have to be paid : or for the four times a 



