ooxov 



6 times ' as much as unirrigated land, supposing that the assessment 

 bears a uniform ratio to the rental, which, of course, can be taken to be 

 true only as a very rough approximation. The increase in the unirri- 

 gated area was from 16 millions to 16'9 millions, or o'6 per cent, and 

 in the irrigated area from b'rt millions to 4'1 millions of acres, or by 

 14 per cent. The increase thus shown has to be discounted on account 

 of excess area found in holdings only in districts which have been 

 surveyed between 187U and l«yO, and districts which have not yet 

 been surveyed, or which were surveyed prior to 1870, remain untouched 

 by this consideration. These latter districts are the Goddvari, the 

 Masulipatam portion of the Kistna district comprising the Kistna 

 delta, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Malabar, Bellary and Anantapur, the 

 larger portion of the South Arcot and the Karnool districts, i.e., they 

 include nearly all the districts in which the tracts commanded by the 

 great irrigation systems are situa,te(^, or in which areas classed as wet 

 largely predominate. The survey increase in the remaining districts 

 may, on a rough calculation, be estimated at 160,000 acres in irrigated 

 and 800,000 acres in unirrigated land. The real increase in the unirri- 

 gated land is thus reduced to 100,000 acres or "6 per cent., and in the 

 in'igated land to 340^000 acres, or 10 per cent. If the two classes of 

 land be reduced to a common denomination by taking o acres of unirri- 

 gated land as equal to an acre of irrigated land, the increase in hold- 

 ings in the 20 years amounts to 5 per cent., while the increase in 

 population during the same period has been 14 per cent. 



The course of prices. — A most important consideration, which the 

 reviewer entirely overlooks in his examination of the pressure of popu- 

 lation on the land, is the course of prices. In the 10 years ending 1870, 

 the prices ruled highest, this result being due to the fact that the 

 quantity of precious metals received into the country as the value of 

 merchandise exported and as the proceeds of loans raised in England 

 for carrying out railways and irrigation works, was largely in excess 

 of the requirements of this country for purposes of currency. The 

 average price of second sort paddy during this period was Es. 172 

 per garce. After 1870, the price suddenly fell, and the average for 6 

 years prior to the famine of 1877 was reduced to Es. 141. During 

 the famine, of course, prices rose enormously and the average price for 

 the whole decade reached the level of that of the previous decade. The 

 prices for the decade ending 1890 have, however, averaged only Rs. 

 142. The prices during the last 2 years have been higher, but this is 

 due to the drought which has prevailed over large portions of the Pre- 

 sidency and the consequent failure of crops. What is stated above as 

 regards the price of paddy is more or less true of other food-grains, for 

 the prices of these food-grains move in sympathy with those of paddy, 

 subject to the qualification that as their consumption is confined to special 

 tracts, the rise or fall in their prices in years of scarcity or plenty, as 

 the case may be, is in a greater ratio than the rise or fall in the price 

 of paddy. Now increased pressure of population can only mean the 

 inability of the supplies of food to overtake the demand and the rise 

 of the price of food as a consequence. The prices of food- grains have 

 not risen in normal years above the level of the years immediately pre- 

 ceding the famine. So recently as 1887, the price of paddy, seooncl 



