OCXIV 



project of Lord Connemara of couneoting this part of the country with 

 Madras by means of railroads will still more develope the resources 

 of the country and secure that felicity to the ill-favored aborigines of 

 Gran jam and Vizagapatam districts which their southern fellow-beings 

 invariably enjoy. 



9, The only class that seems to have suffered is the weaver class. 

 Cloths of different descriptions are being imported from foreign coun- 

 tries, and as they are cheaper being machine made, the demand for 

 country cloths is much lessened. Only coarser cloths are now woven 

 here. The finer sorts of Uppada are also not in so much use. 

 Calcutta cloths find a more ready sale. 



(4) Note by K. Subbarai/udu, Esq., DepiUy Collector, Bellary District. 



I have finished the jamabandi of the division by the end of June 

 last and my examination of section I of tlfe famine analysis village 

 registers has also been nearly completed. The result of the enquiries 

 made by me is that, as compared with their state -'30 or 40 years back, 

 both the agricultural and trading classes seem to have made an 

 advance, and not retrogression, on the whole. Many an old ryot has 

 informed me that 40 or 50 years back there was much more jungle 

 and waste about this part of the country than is the case now, and 

 they attribute the gradual spread of cultivation to gradual increase in 

 population. Of course, this gart of the countr}^ cannot be said to be a 

 densely-populated one even now, but there seems no doubt whatever 

 that the population has been steadily increasing year after year ; and 

 but for the sudden and terrible check it received during the famine of 

 1876—78, when a good proportion of the then existing population died, 

 there is no doubt that the present population of this part of the country 

 would have been much more than what it now is. 



Many of the old people I have talked to on the subject have 

 expressed an opinion that, although the extent under occupation is 

 growing with the population, the lands have not been yielding as much 

 now as they used to do some 40 or 50 years back ; and, when ques- 

 tioned as to what could be the reason for the reduction in the yielding 

 power of land, they explain that when they were young thoy observed 

 that the agricultural classes were constantly changing their holdings at 

 intervals of 2 or 3 years, giving up old lands and taking up new ones, 

 as there were then immense extents of jungle and waste available all 

 round, whereas they cannot and would not do it now-; so that there is 

 more permanency about holdings how than 40 or 50 years ago. The 

 above explanation given by the ryocs for reduction in the yielding 

 power of land seems quite reasonable, as the same piece of land if 

 cultivated year after year without intermission cannot naturally be 

 expected to yield as much as if left waste for an interval or as a piece 

 of virgin soil. 



People say that another main feature of change now apparent is 

 that, whereas about 40 or 50 years ago there used to be only a few 

 important ryots and so wears scattered here and there in villages and 

 taluks, each having at times a number of families depending upon him 

 as so many parasites, tlie present aspect is that wealth and importance 

 are more generally distributed over the part of the country, thus 



