JILY — SEPT. 1857.] 



for India. 



185 



the cubit is undefined, and areas of the same denomination, are de- 

 rived from different multiples of Rod or Rope. Of the more de- 

 finite terms, the Beeqa prevails in Bengal and the North-West 

 Provinces. In Bengal it is 1,600 square yards, and in the North- 

 West Provinces it is 3,025 square yards. In the Bombay Presi- 

 dency it is not authoritatively defined, but averages about f of 

 an acre. The term is quite unknown in the Madras Presidency, 

 where the authorised measure is the Cawnie of 57,600 square feet, 

 or 1-3223 acre; there are also other local land measures, defined, 

 but presenting great differences one from the other ; as the chain 

 of 364 acres, the seed-cottah of T62 acres, the vaylie of 6-6 acres, 

 and the bullah of 3 82 acres. 



The greater portion of the North -West Provinces of India 

 has been surveyed by Government Officers. The area of each vil- 

 lage (or rather parish, to use an English term) is given in Impe- 

 rial acres, but the areas of the fields appertaining to each village, are 

 given in local beegas. The introduction of the acre therefore was 

 only partial. In the Surveys lately made in the Bombay Presiden- 

 cy, the area of each field is recorded in acres, not only in the Eng- 

 lish, but in the vernacular accounts, and the term is well known 

 and understood among the people. In the Madras Presidency, the 

 districts of Bellary and Cuddapah were measured field by field (as 

 far as the land was cultivable) in acres, in 1803, and Kurnool in 

 the same way in 1842. In Salem, the records of field measure- 

 ments made about 1800, are entered both in the Native terms and 

 their equivalents in acres, and the acre is by far the best known. 



Under the above circumstances, the introduction of the Im- 

 perial acre seems not only most desirable, but quite feasible. 

 Where lands have already been accurately measured, and contents 

 recorded in Native terms, those terms might be converted into acres ; 

 and in the progress of the Surveys now going on, all measurements 

 might be at once in acres. This plan has already been successful- 

 ly adopted in the present re-survey of the Southern districts of Ma- 

 dras, and the acre is superseding the cawnie. 



With regard to the subdivisions of the acre they have hither- 

 to in the Madras Presidency been in 40ths (or Goontas), and 



