62 



reason to suppose that their clearance has diminished the rain- 

 fall -* to such an extent as materially to a:ffect the yield of lands. 

 The disappearance of forests has undoubtedly improved the 

 public health, for many tracts of country, in the Madura district 

 for instance, now perfectly healthy were, 60 or 70 years ago, 

 notoriously feverish. 



26. If then, there is no sufficient evidence in regard to any 

 .„ . J. • .■ diminution in the annual rainfall, there is still 



Alleged deterioration i i i i 



of the soil by over-crop- less cvideuce to show that there has been any 

 P"^^' sensible deterioration in the productive capa- 



city of lands. The arguments based on a comparison of the rates 

 of average outturn per acre for the several grains given in the 

 Ayeen Akbari with the outturns assumed at the present day, will 

 not bear examination. According to the Ayeen Akbari tables, 

 the average outturn per acre in the middle of the 16th century 

 was for rice (apparently unhusked) 1,338 lb., for wheat 1,155 lb., 

 for cotton unpicked 670 lb. The averages in these tables have 

 been arrived at with reference to the rates for good, bad 

 and middling lands, but without any attempt being made to 

 find out under which of these classes the area predominated. 

 Moreover, with the immense increase in the acreage of culti- 

 vation especially of inferior soils, the average outturn must 

 necessarily decrease, while to establish a deterioration it must 

 be shown that lands under cultivation in former times yield 

 less now than they did before. In the case of wheat, especi- 

 ally, irrigation makes a great difference, the yield of irrigated 

 wheat being from 50 to 300 per cent, in excess of the out- 

 turn of unirrigated wheat. The dominions of the Emperor 

 Akbar did not extend to the south of the Vyndhia Mountains, 

 and the Ayeen Akbari rates cannot therefore be applied to 

 South India. If the rate for rice, 1,338 lb., given in these 

 tables refer to unhusked rice, the Madras settlement average 

 (1,621 lb.) is considerably higher. Cotton is frequently sown 

 as a mixed crop, and it is difficult to calculate its average 

 outturn. There is nothing, however, to show that its outturn 

 has diminished. In a recent report -^ on the cultivation of 



2* Mr. Mackenzie in the Kistna District Manual remarks : "It would no doubt be 

 interesting to find any indication of change of climate, for it is supposed that in former 

 centuries, before the forests were cleared, there was a much heavier rainfall. Hiouen 

 Tsang's description of Dhanakaeheka with trees and gushing fountains supports this 

 idea, but we have seen that even in the 13th century there were quarrels about pasture 

 land, bitter enough to cause war, and we shall see in the following chapter that the 

 Muhammadan historians described the famines in A.D. 1423 and 1474 in language that 

 might have applied to the Guntiir famine of 1832. We cannot say therefore that there 

 ie historical evidence that the climate has become worse." 



25 In a note to the report of the Agricultural Inspector it is stated that tke year to 

 which the report related was a good year and that therefore the estimate of average yield 

 of cotton should be accepted with some caution. < 



