188 STATISTICAL SKETCH 



main channel, is carried on a level along the bank, until a sufficient height is 

 obtained to admit of a fall of eight or ten feet : the mill is then erected below, 

 and the stream is directed by an inclined wooden trough <on an over shot 

 wheel. The mill stones are commonly from one andahalf to two feet in dia- 

 meter : the grain is placed in a funnel-shaped bag, suspended over a hole in 

 the centre of the upper stone, and drops gradually from it as in an hour glass. 

 By a simple contrivance the shoot of water can be increased or diminished at 

 pleasure, and the wheel is stopped by removing the wooden trough, when the 

 "water passes through a channel under the wheel. A mill requires but one 

 person (usually a boy,) to attend it, and will grind from three to four maunds 

 in the day. Where the diverted stream is sufficiently large, two or more 

 mills are erected together, and worked by separate branches from it. The 

 charges for grinding are usually two to three seers in the maund, includ- 

 ing wastage : this, however, is small, as the flour is not cleared from the 

 bran. 



The public revenue under the former Rajas, arose from duties on com- 

 merce, agriculture, mines and law proceedings. An impost was laid on ghee, 

 payable by the owners of cattle, at a fixed rate for each animal, amounting 

 to four annas on a female buffaloe. The weavers throughout the province, 

 •were also subject to a separate tax. The assessment of land was, generally 

 speaking, light, the government demand on agriculture being rated at only 

 one-third of the gross produce in ordinary lands, and at one half in the very 

 fertile. In mines, the royal share amounted to one half. 



The collection was made in two forms — being imposed one year on the 

 land, and a second year levied by a capitation tax on the inhabitants. As 

 these, however, consisted solely of persons connected with agriculture, the 

 source from which the payments were made, was necessarily the same, 

 though the mode and detail of cess varied. 



