116 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [March, 1910. 



food-grains* In collating these figures, we have deducted the 

 figures in Col. Ill for rice. The stationary character of the 

 figures is at once apparent. 



The comparative steadiness of the figures for area and 

 output in these years is most significant if we consider the 

 great increase in the population as revealed by the censuses of 

 1872 and 1901. It would indeed be a most extraordinary 

 thing if the area of cultivation had increased from 1872 propor- 

 tionately to the increase in population, i.e., nearly 43%, and 

 then, under the added stimulus of a rapidly increasing export 

 throughout the period under review, with gold prices rising 

 towards the latter part of the period, along with a further 

 increase in population, had assumed a stationary character. 

 In the absence of satisfactory figures for either we may say, 

 that there exists a high degree of probability that the increase 

 in area, and hence in output, has been considerably less rapid 

 than has been the increase in population. 



In the case of Bengal, Sir W. W. Hunter in his u Statistical 

 Account of Bengal" has given such figures as were available 

 about the year 1870 for the area under cultivation in some of 

 the Districts. These figures (with the exception perhaps of 

 those for the District of Rangpurin the new province) are not 

 sufficiently reliable to be worth quoting. The figures more often 

 exhibit a decrease than an increase of the net cropped area, and 

 a comparison of the figures for eighteen selected Districts l with 

 those for the same Districts according to the ' Agricultural 

 Statistics ' for the year 1905-06 discloses an aggregate decrease. 

 The areas under cultivation were probably somewhat over- 

 estimated, but, even if we allow a margin of 25% for error, the 

 areas would still bear a much larger proportion to the popula- 

 tion than at present. The figures for Rangpur are given 



below ("Statistical Account of Bengal," Vol. VII, pp. 

 257, 258) : — 



1872-73. 1905-06 



Total area of the District 2,360,294 2,235,520 acres. 

 Net cropped area .. 1,737,950 1,366,900 



Rice .. .. 1,263,266 1,102,500 



If we reflect for a moment first on the lesson conveyed by 

 the figures we have tabulated, and then on the enormous in- 

 crease in the population between 1872 and 1901, the wonder- 

 ful thing appears to be, not that the prices of food-grains have 

 risen during the last 20 or 25 years, but that they have not 

 risen more rapidly than they have done. The land was there, 

 but the people was not. We shall presently have occasion to 



1 The Districts are Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, Monghyr, Purnea, 

 Cuttack, Balasore, Dacca, Backergunj, Maimensingh, Faridpnr, Jessore, 

 Rangpur, Bogra, Maid ah, Rajshahi, Pabna, Dinajpur. 



