g02 • ■ ^ STATISTICAL SKETCH 



is, in fact, the government share in the value of the national products of 

 those forests, all of which are public property. These duties have been 

 hitherto let to farm on annual leases, at the undermentioned Jumma : — 



1816-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 

 1,721 2,841 3,200 3,987 4,850 5,503 6,302 



The total improvement which has taken place in these various branches of 

 assessment, since the conquest, falls little short of 60,000 rupees, without 

 taking into account the remission of 7.000 rupees above-mentioned. 



Notwithstanding the general lightness of the government demand, a very 

 extensive revision of the detailed assessment has been found indispensable at 

 each succeeding settlement. This necessity has arisen from the contracted 

 state of the laboring population, which renders it difficult for any Malguz&r 

 to replace sudden casualties among his tenants. In the present state of 

 minute village assessment, the death or desertion of even a single culti- 

 vator, adds greatly to the burthen of the remaining tenants : where 

 further losses occur, immediate remissions are generally made to save the 

 village from total desertion. Such defalcations are supplied from a cor- 

 responding improvement in other estates, and as contingencies of this 

 nature are best known to the surrounding Mdlguzars, the distribution 

 of the Pergunnah assessment has been, hitherto, intrusted to the Padhans 

 themselves. This measure is executed in a general assembly, or Panchait, of 

 the parties concerned in the scale of the expired Jumma : the increase is, sub- 

 sequently, laid on in the shape of a, percentage. The general equity with which 

 these mutual assessments have been conducted, is sufficiently evinced in the 

 facility and punctuality with which they have been realised. The village 

 settlements are formed with the established Padhdn in all cases, except 

 where objected tOj on sufficient grounds, by the remaining sharers on the 



