ooxx 



for them has tended to increase the rate of their wages nearly three- 

 fold during the last 25 years. Persons who were allowed 3 annas a 

 day before now earn 8 to 10 annas. Most of these people who can 

 earn money by hard labor are in a position to save enough to purchase 

 lands and live comfortably. 



On account of increase in population, there is undoubtedly an 

 increase both in the number of agriculturists and in the extent of land 

 cultivated, as most of the waste lands are now rendered cultivable for 

 ordinary nunjah crops. And the bigger vakils and other well-to-do 

 people, instead of hoarding up their money or lending it out on 

 interest, prefer investing it in lands which they consider safe. More- 

 over, the chief agricultural classes of Southern India have been 

 impoverished by their constantly running into debts on account of 

 their lavish expenditure on the occasions of marriages and deaths, 

 when their agricultural resources are stinted, and when they are too 

 lazy or too uncondescending to take to other industrial professions. 

 The result is the higher classes, who were sole landholders before, 

 have now to give up their land little by little, whereas the poor 

 laboring classes have acquired land by dint of their economical savings. 

 As agricultural profession is found to be more safe and secure by the 

 lower classes, they lay out their earnings on landed property. It is 

 this tendency that partly causes the rise in the value of land in spite 

 of deficiency of its yield. 



The gradual increase in population, a population depending entirely 

 upon agriculture for their livelihood, contributes as much to this rapid 

 increase in the value of lands as the artificial improvements brought to 

 bear from time to time upon the productiveness of the lands them- 

 selves. More than 30 years ago changes in the ownership of holdings 

 will compare by an extreme minimum if viewed in connection with 

 the rapidly-increasing divisions of property at the present day, and the 

 nature of the tenures under which they are held. The causes seem 

 to be more or less due to the increased resources of the country, to 

 the enterprise of the enlightened section of the community, and to the 

 hard competition of the times. There has been more accumulation of 

 capital, and more of the nature of sinking funds than what the history 

 of a past age will teach us. In certain directions, the increased value 

 of land is due to the improved productive nature of the soil, and to 

 the facilities afforded by irrigational works. The idea of acquisition 

 helps the idea for permanent property, and owing to competition in the 

 same market, the values are generally very high. The value of the 

 land in general has thus increased, and the increase is due to the desire 

 for permanent property in some shape at any cost. In short, accumu- 

 lation of wealth, increased investment, competition, and over-population 

 contribute to the rise in the value of land. 



In what directions the agricultural class has progressed. — The agri- 

 cultural class embraces three sets of people — 



(1) Landholders who do nothing more than let their lands and 

 collect the rents. 



(2) Those who have some lands of their own which they cultivate 

 themselves^ and who also take up lands from others on lease, if circum- 

 stances would peymit it. 



