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MANUAL OF THE NILAQIRI DISTRICT. 319 



ing the roving cultivation of the Badagas without ignoring their CHAP. XIll, 

 ancient rights, formed for some time previous to its issue the PART I. 

 subject of correspondence between the Collector of Coimbatore, revenue 

 Mr. Thomas, and the Board. Mr. Thomas had, in the first History. 

 instance, proposed that as a compromise a Badaga should be 

 allowed an acre of fallow without payment for every acre of land 

 for which he paid, or as an alternative that the assessment should be 

 reduced 15 per cent, as compensation for the loss of the "^ shifting " 

 system. The Board held that " the proper remedy was to 

 make the assessment low enough to admit of the land being 

 permanently held with profit to the owner," and directed the 

 Collector to take the existing rates of assessment on the Hills 

 into consideration, "bearing in mind that the poverty of the land- 

 holder or his unthrifty culture was not the test by which the 

 assessment was to be regulated." Mr. Thomas, however, held 

 that in dealing with the assessment of the lands the 

 intrinsic capabilities of the soil alone should be considered, and 

 not accidents of ^'manure and capital." He pointed out that 

 the proposed restriction of grazing privileges would limit the 

 supply of manure, and that though the Badagas were better off 

 than formerly, a large expenditure of capital on the land would 

 probably not produce very favourable results, as though several 

 practical European farmers iiad tried to get more out of the 

 land than the Badagas, they had failed ; and further that the 

 Badagas were by no means unthrifty agriculturists. He therefore 

 urged that a reduction of 15 per cent, in the assessment was the 

 least that could be conceded. He subsequently submitted state- 

 ments of holdings and assessments showing the effects of his 

 proposals in detail, but for convenience of calculation substituted 

 12 1 for 15 per cent. The Board admitted that considerable 

 reduction was called for, but pointed out, very properly, that the 

 " shifting " system had not necessarily resulted from the poverty 

 of the soil, but was generally practised where unoccupied land 

 was abundant. " The Burghers," they remark, " being wretchedly 

 poor, and originally without a remunerative market, so long as 

 they were able to change their occupancy at will, pursued the 

 cropping system as the one by which they could draw their 

 support from the soil with the least possible expenditure of 

 labour and capital. They were put to no expense in supplying 

 fertilizing materials of any kind to their outlying fields, for to 

 use none is a necessary incident of this kind of cultivation, and 

 by leaving the land fallow for long periods, the mere action of 

 the atmosphere on the soil saved them some of the mechanical 

 labour of ploughing. Under such a system, and poverty-stricken 

 as they were, they had neither the inducement nor the means to 

 obtain from the land the fullest return in the shortest period. 



