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crops, of which there are a great many varieties, as well aS 

 those on which garden produce was raised, always paid 

 money assessments. It is obvious that the application of^a 

 uniform rate in fixing the Government share of the gross 

 produce must unduly benefit lands of the better qualities, 

 while rendering the incidence of the tax very heavy on the 

 poorer soils ; and if the rates are to be graduated with refer- 

 ence to the qualities of the soil, situation of the lands and 

 the nature of the crops raised, the number of rates must be 

 so large as to entirely preclude the supervision necessary for 

 securing the due share of Government. In the case of irri- 

 gated lands there was in former days a single rate for a whole 

 village, and the ryots who held the lands jointly were left to 

 adjust the differences in the produce of lands of different 

 qualities in the same village by private arrangement. This 

 was generally effected by giving to each ryot a share in the 

 lands of every quality situated in every part of the village 

 and by periodically redistributing the parcels so as to 

 remedy any inequalities which may have arisen owing to 

 changes in the conditions of the several parcels brought 

 about by natural causes. The waste of labour involved in 

 cultivating innumerable small plots of land situated in 

 different parts of a village can be readily conceived. There 

 can, moreover, be no incentive to make any improvements to 

 land or to adopt superior methods of cultivation or raise 

 valuable commercial crops under the sharing system, because 

 all such improvements would be taxed by Government. The 

 difficulties in securing the Government share of the produce 

 and of disposing of it for a money price would also be enor- 

 mous. To ensure even a fair amount of success in the appli- 

 cation of the system, it would require minute and constant 

 supervision on the part of the superior officers of Government 

 and the cost of the establishments, if the officers employed 

 were to be paid bond fide salaries and not be expected to 

 make a living by colluding with the ryots to cheat the State 

 and divide the gains with them, must be prohibitive. The 

 graphic description given by Mr. A. Seshiah Sastriar (appen- 

 dix VI. -B. (5)) of the evils of the system when it prevailed 

 in the small State of Pudukota and of the demoralization it 

 caused has already been referred to. When the Government 

 directly collects its share of the produce, it practically com- 

 bines in itself the three-fold functions of a Government, a 

 landlord and a sowkar or trader ; an army of watchers, inspec- 

 tors, estimators and measurers of produce will have to be let 

 loose on the 'people, interfering with the ryots at every stage 

 of production and the harvesting and storage of the produce. 



