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 no value, the crop raised was regarded as the security for the 

 Government revenue, and the instalments of revenue payable 

 were so timed that a considerable portion of it might be 

 collected before the crop could be removed from the field or 

 the threshing ground. As lands became more and more 

 valuable, the necessity for regarding the standing crops as 

 security for the revenue ceased, and the tendency has 

 been to advance the kists so as not to compel the rvots to 

 borrow money for the payment of Government revenue and 

 to enable them to pay the revenue by the sale of their pro- 

 duce. The relief afforded to the ryots by the changes made 

 has been considerable; but the scope of the reform had to 

 be restricted in consequence of objections raised by the 

 Government of India on the score of difficulties likely to be 

 felt by the reduction of cash balances at particular periods of 

 the year. It is possible to introduce the change gradually 

 so as to obviate these objections which ought not to be 

 allowed to stand permanently in the way of a much needed 

 reform of this kind. Thus, for instance, in his " Preliminary 

 Note " submitted by Mr. Nicholson to the Madras Agricul- 

 tural Committee, 1889, he remarks as regards the former 

 kistbundy of the Tinnevelly district, "■ A kistbundy demanded 

 from December to May, three-quarters being payable by the 

 1 5th March, must be wrong when the crop is sown in Octo- 

 ber-November and picked only in March to May, and that in 

 fact the kists were actually paid by the broker whose terms 

 of advance were said to be Rs. 10 to Rs. 12 per podi of 

 cotton deliverable on, say, 15th May, the real market price 

 being then Rs. 16 or 16^, besides penalties for non-delivery 

 on due date. This kistbundy has now been altered to one 

 beginning in February, to the great relief of the ryot." The 

 present kistbundy for the Tinnevelly district consists of four 

 equal instalments beginning in February, and it is obvious 

 that if the produce could be delivered only in the middle of 

 May, three-fourths of the Government assessment is being 

 demanded, even under the altered kistbundy, at a time when 

 the ryot could not sell his crops to advantage. It is true 

 the ryot does not take advances for the delivery of crops 

 solely with a view to raise money to pay the Government 

 assessment, but there can be no doubt, that if the kists 

 were put forward, he would be able to make better terms 

 with the merchant than he does at present. In the case of 

 the southern taluks of Coimbatore where, as in Tinnevelly, 

 cotton is an important article of produce, the kistbundy 

 consists of* four equal instalments beginning with January 

 so that almost the entire revenue becomes due before the ryot 



