CCXXXVlll 



be checked by the reverse kind of errors in another part. But it takes 

 about three hours to cut and weigh the crop of a field on the spot. 

 On an average this operation can only go on simultaneously in two 

 fields at a time. For the ' Khureef ' there are less than two and for 

 the ' Rubbee ' less than one month available for the purpose, that is, 

 some seventy-six working days ; i.e., no more than 152 different fields 

 can be appraised by the European Officer, even if he gives up two- 

 thirds of the time available for inspecting his villages ; and you must 

 recollect what pressure was put on me to finish this work speedily. 

 Bearing in mind that it is necessary to find out the average produce of 

 some dozen and-a-half different kinds of crop on eight different classes 

 of soil irrigated and.uuirrigated, it is easy to see what a small basis of 

 calculation can be obtained for each soil ; add to this, the fact that the 

 appraisement had to be made in 41 groups of villages by two officers 

 within the limit of one year, and that till the inspection was over it 

 could not be ascertained how these groups would be divided, and the 

 impossibility of procuring broad enough data for the calculation is 

 apparent 



" [h) The native officials to whom part of the task was entrusted, 

 with the wish of avoiding the imputation of lowering the apparent 

 assets of a village, fell into the opposite extreme, and in spite of orders 

 to choose in each village, at least one good, one average and one 

 inferior field, rejected all the really bad fields. 



" {d) The native officials taking the soils as given in the settlement 

 papers, in many cases put down as meesum that which had not been 

 manured for many years. 



" (e) No allowance can be made for the numerous tuhm soJcht fields 

 where seed is annually sown on the mere chances of a favorable fall 

 of rain. 



'^ (f) No allowances can with any certainty be made £or the little 

 unproductive places at the corners and edges of fields ; nor do I see 

 how to make accurate allowances for the charges of weighing and 

 carriage which fall on the Zemindars and the latter of which varies 

 with the distance from the bazaar. Nor can it be ascertained what 

 amount the Zemindar is forced by his necessities to sell at the low 

 harvest price and what portion he can reserve till the price rises. 



" [g) The appraisement of the inferior xjrops— bajra, mote, oorud, 

 lobia, mundwa, &c., in the Khureef ; gram, mussoor, &c., in the Rubbee 

 — is particularly difficult. The produce has to be exposed for days to 

 the wind and sun before the grain can be separated. Who is to watch 

 during this time ? It was the Zemindar's (peasant proprietor's) interest 

 of course, to lower the apparent outturn, and I could feel no confi- 

 dence in the result of an operation which I had not witnessed 

 throughout with my own eyes ; yet this was in most cases incompatible 

 with the task of inspecting fresh villages every morning. The conse- 

 quence was the appraisement was far too much limited to the better 

 classes of crops, — cotton and mukkee for the Khureef, wheat and 

 barley for the Rubbee. This was the case in Mr. DanielFs pergunahs 

 as well ; but of course to make such an operation a true measure of the 

 actual outturn, the several crops must be cut in the same proportion 

 in which they are gi'own. 



