204 



Statistics of tlie 



[No. 38, 



procured from these Jagheers, the rate of inhabitants to the mile, will 

 be considerably increased, judging from a general view, which show- 

 ed them enjoying far more prosperous circumstances than the Khalsa 

 villages around. 



Where no register of births, marriages or burials exist, the probable 

 increase or decline of population must rest solely on conjectural grounds. 

 On traversing the district, numerous evidences appeared conclusive, 

 as to some past period, when the numerical strength of the inhabi- 

 tants had been far greater than at present: out of 152 villages 

 composing the Sircar, there are 34 depopulated ; whilst the industry 

 of those unbroken, remain far below their former amount of tillage 

 and manufactures ; six villages have been without inhabitants for up- 

 wards of one hundred years, and two for twice that period ; those 

 remaining unpopulated, date generally from the unquiet times that 

 ushered in the present century, when famine and pestilence, con- 

 summated the dire evils, that had previously been inflicted by roving 

 bands of freebooters, the effects of these calamities, remaining to the 

 present day. 



The industry of the population is chiefly employed in tillage ; 

 manufactures are far too insignificant to interfere with the term agri- 

 cultural being specially applied to their employment. The silk weav- 

 ing trade once flourished prosperously at Pytun, but that has long 

 been declining, and throughout the districts no goods are manufac- 

 tured, but of the coarsest description for home consumption. Through- 

 out India generally, the people are daily becoming more and more 

 agricultural in their habits, the native hand loom having been su- 

 perseded by the fabric3 of Glasgow and Manchester ; under these 

 circumstances one of two things naturally ensues, either production 

 exceeds consumption, or lands fall out of cultivation : the remedy 

 against such a contingency is provided for, by conferring on the coun- 

 try the advantages of disposing of its produce, by opening up in every 

 direction good roads, of such a description, that carts may travel in 

 all seasons. At present produce will not pay at the exorbitant cost of 

 taking it to market on the backs of bullocks : the wisdom of the mea- 

 sure now in active operation, of carrying a line of roads throughout 

 His Highness's dominions, will do on a small scale for the country, 

 what railways have effected in America on a more extended one : an 

 improving revenue will speedily repay the outlay of the undertaking, 

 whilst the natives of the country in the increase of agricultural pro- 



