191 



value of lands due to the same causes are allowed for by 

 modifying the classification under " sorts " in each group. 

 Thus fair land in a good situation immediately adjoining the 

 inhabited portion of the village would be classed in the first 

 sort " good, " while good land at a great distance would be 

 classed as "moderate." In the case of irrigated lands their 

 classification into " sorts " also is adjusted with reference to 

 their facilities for irrigation owing to their proximity or other- 

 wise to the irrigation source. 



The procedure prescribed in the Bombay Presidency for 

 the valuation of soils is, on the other hand, much simpler. 

 Lands in each village are divided into 10 classes, and their 

 relative values are ascertained by noting their advantages in 

 respect of irrigation, and their defects, such as (1) admixture 

 of nodules of limestone, (2) admixture of sand, (3) sloping 

 surface, (4) want of cohesion, (5) impermeability to water, 



(6) exposure to scouring from flow of water in the rains, and 



(7) excessive moisture from springs, each of the defects being 

 held to lower the soil one class. The rate for the highest 

 class of soil»in each village is fixed by the Superintendent of 

 Survey with reference to general considerations, such as 

 climate, facilities for market communications, average prices 

 and the prosperity or deterioration of the village under 

 previous settlements ; and the rates to be imposed on the 

 lands of the other classes are determined by a mere arithme- 

 tical process. 



The Madras settlement operations, however, though con- 

 ducted under elaborate rules resolve themselves in the final 

 result into the simple method adopted in Bombay, firstly, 

 because, the minute and extended enquiries which they in- 

 volve are in most cases impossible to carry out and have 

 frequently been dispensed with ; secondly, because, none of 

 the data on which reliance has to be placed, such as prices of 

 food-grains in former years, are perfectly trustworthy, and 

 in some cases information regarding the quotations of prices 

 in the ryot's selling months for the old years are entirely 

 wanting ; and thirdly, because, the determination of the rates 

 of assessment with reference to a large number of factors, 

 slight errors in regard to which might seriously vitiate the 

 total result, is apt to make the assessments excessive. The 

 late Mr. Pedder, Revenue Secretary in the India Office, has 

 pointed this out very clearly.^^ After describing the proce- 

 dure prescribed for the Madras settlements by " the instruc- 

 __^ 1 



■" Vide Statementiof Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India for 1882-83, 

 part i., page 115. 



