CiLVP. XXV. EICE-CULTIVATION. 427 



350, and the nortli 122, the whole length, including the 

 islands, being 874, and without them 754 yards. The weir is 

 a plain brick wall, plastered with chunam, six feet thick, and 

 seven feet high, the top being lined with masonry. It is 

 defended from the overfall by masses of rough stone ; and 

 there are twenty-four sluices, which prevent accumulations of 

 sand from forming above the anient. The sluices are con- 

 nected by a narrow bridge of sixty-two arches, to secure 

 access to them dming floods, and it also serves as a means of 

 communication between the banks for foot passengers. The 

 cost of the work, and of repairs between 1836 and 1850, was 

 two lacs of rupees, and it assists the irrigation of 600,000 

 acres, yielding a revenue of 400,000?., or equal to two-thirds 

 of that of the whole island of Ceylon. 



By means of these anicuts the fertile province of Tanjore is 

 converted mto one vast rice-field,* and the portion of Trichino- 

 poly below the upper weir is equally rich. The country to 

 the north of the road between the anient and the town of 

 Trichinopoly was a wide expanse of bright green rice culti- 

 vation, stretching to the horizon. In Southern India there 

 are two annual crops of rice, called the caar and the soomhah 

 or peshanian croj)s. The former is reaped in October and is 



There was formerly a peculiar ' while the latter was relieved fi'om 



system of collecting land revenue 

 prevalent in Tanjore and part of 

 Tinuevelly, called Oolungoo, by which 



loss when prices were much depressed. 

 Mill's India in 1858, p. 119. 

 This Oolungoo system was inti'o- 



the Government demand was depen- I duced into Tanjore in 1825. It was 



dent on the current price of grain. A ' found that the system was fertile in 



standard grain assessment was fixed ; fraud and corruption, especially in 



on each village, and also a standard '. connection with the determination of 



rate according to which the grain j the annual price, and with claims for 



demand was to be commuted into i alleged deficiency of produce. In 



money ; but if prices rose more than : July, 1859, the Government resolved 



10 per cent, above the standard com- i to abolish the Oolungoo system, and 



mutation rate, or fell more than 5 per ; to substitute a fixed money demand, 



cent, below it, the Government, and sinnlar to that which prevails in all 



not the cultivator, was to receive the \ other districts. By 18G0 this change 



profit and to bear the loss. The | had been completed, both in Tanjore 



advantage of the system was that the i and TinnevcUy. — Principal 3{easures 



Government participated in the benefit of Sir Charles Trevelyan's Administra- 



of high prices with the cultivator, tion at Madras [Madras, 18G0), p. 55. 



