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diminution from the vexations incidental to a settlement 

 without a complete sacrifice by the State of its right to a 

 reasonable share in the increase of agricultural wealth due to 

 causes independent of the exertions of the agriculturists. 

 One thing is quite clear, viz., that the object in view cannot 

 be secured so long as the valuation of the various classes of 

 soil forms the main part of the work of a settlement officer ; 

 for, such a valuation cannot in the nature of things be effected 

 without enquiries of a minute and prolonged, and therefore 

 of a troublesome and vexatious, character ; and attempts to 

 arrive at a valuation by rough methods and hasty generali- 

 zations have only too frequently resulted in uncertainty and 

 inequality of assessment to the injury of the agricultural 

 classes. An absolutely equal assessment of land is, in any 

 case, impossible, both on account of the imperfection of the 

 data on which the valuation has to be based, and the constant 

 variation, in the natural course of things, of the conditions 

 which affect the valuation. The Government of India has 

 accordingly declared that, when once the soil has been care- 

 fully classified, there should be no re-valuation when the 

 assessment has to be revised, and that the revision of the 

 assessment should be effected under such principles and based 

 on such data as will enable any person investing money in 

 landed property or in improvements to land, to forecast, with 

 tolerable precision and without official aid, the enhancement 

 of revenue to which he will in future be subject, in order 

 that " certainty of assessment might become one of the 

 inherent attributes of agricultural property." The procedure 

 prescribed for effecting this object, so far as it is applicable 

 to the conditions of this Presidency, is as follows. The 

 causes which contribute to an enhancement of the value of 

 estates are : 1st, increased area brought under cultivation ; 

 2nd, increased produce due to improvements to land, and the 

 adoption of improved methods of cultivation ; ord, rise in the 

 prices of produce ; and 4th, diminished expenses of cultivation 

 or diminished cost of bringing the produce to market. In 

 this Presidency, the question of increase of revenue due to 

 extension of cultivation dees not, so far at least as the East 

 Coast districts are concerned, arise at periodical revisions 

 of assessment, as, under the system of field assessments in 

 force, every new field taken up for cultivation is made to pay 

 the prescribed assessment at once. In the case, however, of 

 estates in the Wynaad taluk of the Malabar district a large 

 area of waste lands has been assessed at nominal rates, because 

 to assess 'them at full rates while they remain uncultivated 

 will enhance, the assessment on the holding far beyond its 



