REVENUE SURVEYS. 113 



for assessment purposes comprising the soils, irrigated and dry ; 

 the details of soils under cultivation ; the tenures of the holdings ; 

 the culturable and barren areas ; the areas under different crops ; 

 the cultivators, showing the numbers in each, caste and the 

 areas cultivated by each caste, and all agricultural statistics with. 

 respect to wells, ploughs, cattle, &c. The duties and responsibilities 

 of the survey officers were much increased by these arrangements, 

 but there was every prospect of an increase in the accuracy of the 

 records and eventual economy. The boundary disputes were very 

 numerous during the following season (1884—85), no less than 1,800 

 of the villages surveyed being affected thereby. These disputes 

 appeared to be due to the old defective field maps, which, when 

 adjacent invariably overlapped each other, so that the same ground 

 appeared in both, and much litigation and ill-feeling was thereby 

 caused among neighbouring zamindars. 



The total cost of the operations done by the Survey Department 

 amounted in 1884—85 to 4 annas 3 pies per acre, a rate which com- 

 pared very favourably with the old rate for field survey alone. This 

 was not due to larger fields, for the average size of those in Gorakhpur 

 was only half an acre, but it proved what survey officers have always 

 urged, that the work would be done not only better but more cheaply 

 if the Survey Department recorded the rights of proprietors and 

 tenants at the time of survey, for it has been conclusively proved 

 that correct field boundaries cannot be obtained otherwise, as the 

 people will not attend unless they know that their rights are being 

 recorded. The expenditure of the Settlement Department was 

 exceptionally high, due to complicated tenures, minute holdings and 

 numerous disputes, and this served to raise the cost of the complete 

 operations to Rs 410 per square mile. 



The survey was continued on the same lines in 1885-86, but in 

 1886-87 an endeavour was made to employ the district Jcanungos* in 

 place of the survey munsarims ; the experiment however failed, as 

 the men were found to be too ignorant for the purpose. Here, again, 

 in the case of one talisil;\ the survey operations resulted in the dis- 

 covery of twice as many occupancy tenants as had been returned by 

 the kanungos four years previously, the fact being that the presence 

 of European surveyors encouraged the tenants to assert their rights 

 more fearlessly than they could otherwise have done. The survey of 



* Revenue oflicial under the tahsildar. 

 f Poition of a district divided off for revenue purposes. 

 , Y 20321. H 



