90 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
structed Mr Miiller to ascertain the actual gains as nearly 
‘as possible. He reports as follows :— 
“TI beg to submit a statement of what I ascertained 
from the Koomaree people on the spot :— 
EXPENDITURE. 
Rs. a. p. 
Assessment per 14 acre, : . 18 0 
Two men cutting for ten days, . 300 
Ragi seed, nine seers, ... - 040 
Clearing grass for one month, one man, . 40 0 
Watching three aes at Rs. 2 per aia 600 
Gathering crop,.. see Se as 400 
Rs. 18 12 0 
; RECEIPTS, 
Ragi, 28 mudas at R. 1, seis ss .. 28 0 0 
F Profit, 288 be Rs.9 4 0” 
But as the Koomaree cultivators, who seldom break ground 
singly, employ their wives and children for all except 
felling, which they do themselves, the actual expenditure 
is reduced to the assessment, and ‘that, i in secluded valleys, 
is very often evaded. It is ‘generally believed that one- 
half of the profit goes to the coast sauk4r, who gives an 
advance. The Koomaree cultivators live in wretched tem- 
porary huts, and make a very poor livelihood, offering a 
great contrast to the substantial homestead of the Canara 
ryot, who is generally well housed, and lives in consider- 
able comfort. 
‘The system of the hill cultivators is nearly the same 
in different countries. The Irulars and Kurumbars on the 
Nilgiris, the Malaidlis on the Shevarais, the Karens in 
Burmah, the Punam cultivators in Malabar, the Koomaree 
Mahrattas in Canara, all endeavour to obtain a precarious 
subsistence by scattering grain after burning the jungle, 
and thus avoid the toil of careful cultivation. 
‘In a thinly peopled country like Burmah, there is 
little objection; but in the limited plateau of Yerkad, 
where the best land is almost all taken up for coffee 
plantations or fruit-gardens, and in the balaghat taluks 
