PEOGEESS OF THE VAEIOUS CLASSES 61 



more constant demand for labour which are prevalent 

 nowadays, their condition is no better than it formerly 

 was, indeed some observers consider that it is worse. 

 They hold in their custody a large part of the agri- 

 cultural land of the Presidency, and, so far as this land 

 is concerned, they bar the way to progress. 



Class 4, the landless labourers, remains to be con- 

 sidered. The condition of this class has certainly 

 improved during the last twenty years ; and though 

 in the last few years the rise in the price of necessaries 

 about neutralises the general rise in money wages, 

 still the constant demand for labour enables the more 

 enterprising men to pick and choose. Many men now 

 move freely to distant towns which offer the best 

 prospects, while others who prefer field work do 

 equally well by following round the rice, jowari and 

 cotton harvests, or by obtaining work on the sugar- 

 cane crop of the canal areas. They have developed 

 an independent attitude and secured a position of re- 

 lative strength which enables the more energetic ones 

 to earn larger real wages and the less energetic to do 

 shorter hours of work. 



The above remarks are an attempt to estimate 

 progress amongst the different agricultural classes. 

 Circumstances, however, vary greatly in different 

 localities. In the tracts of scanty and precarious rain- 

 fall anything like continuous progress is very difficult 

 to secure in the absence of irrigation facilities ; and 

 it is mainly in the more favoured tracts that the pro- 

 gress noted above has taken place, and, in particular, 



