256 
On the Rent and Produce of Land. 
[Aug. 
to reconsider the prospect of success in employing capital, by investing it in 
landed property, and agricultural speculations. 
This, as has been said, may be done by purchasing the biswadari and zamindarl 
rights of villages, the lands remaining subject to the Government revenue; or 
the village may be taken on a lease from Government, which invests the tenant 
with the necessary authority and power usually exerted by the bimadars during 
the term of the leases ; or the lands, or part of the lands of a village, maybe 
subject to a tenant under a lease to Government. 
The first of these plans has been adopted by persons who have a right to become 
proprietors of the soil, and has generally been done, with a view towards providing 
a suitable estate for children : the latter, where a person wishes to have a 
temporary interest in the soil, or who is not entitled to hold lands. 
Either of those plans are feasible for carrying on general agricultural specula- 
tions, which appears to be the most adviseable under present circumstances ; and 
a person so inclined should settle himself in some centrical spot, not far from a 
navigable river, having within a reach of 10 or 20 miles a country capable of 
producing indigo, sugar, tobacco, and cotton. By having the lands of a few 
villages within that cii'cuit at his disposal, he will be able to direct the culture of 
these crops by the raiats as he thinks would be most advantageous, procuring 
proper seed and plants, and, where necessary, giving instructions in the culture, 
where a superior mode may be adopted, but by no means interfering any further, 
which would disturb the industry of the raiats , and make him quite indifferent as 
to the produce, but adhering, as far as possible, to the plan, of purchasing at the 
fair marketable price. Some lands in all villages will lie found proper for either 
of these crops. Wells may be dug, cuts from rivers, jhil y, and canals executed, 
and irregation improved in all its branches, where the lease of the village'will 
admit of the prospect of a fair return ; in general, the crops of wheat, grain, 
and millet, may be left entirely to the natives, who ought to be encouraged in 
every possible way ; and on purchasing or renting a village, a small grove of babul 
trees ought to be immediately planted, with a few sisoo and toon plants on the edges ; 
this would do a great deal to secure their good-will. Mangoe groves are never 
of any use to the people ; they are rented out to the kunjars, who watch them Dight 
and day, and the villagers never taste of the fruit without payment, except by 
stealth, and often vexatious quarrels arise regarding them ; the babul trees are 
exceedingly useful for agricultural purposes, and they soon grow to a proper size 
on almost any soil, but are getting very scarce, and few think of planting them. 
The statistics of Anupsheher shew how easy it would he to set on foot an im- 
proved agriculture, it appearing there are no less than 40 families of malts em- 
ployed there as mere labourers, and, I understand, in general, occupied in dragging 
wood and bamboos to and from the rafts on the river. 
The returns upon villages thus rented, without taking any trouble whatever as 
to improving them, but merely taking half the produce from the cultivators, after 
the crop is reaped, or taking it at a valuation while standing, gives good returns, 
as I shewed in my last letter ; and, with a proper direction, the lands of the villages 
may be turned to a much better account. Even the clearing of the lands from jun- 
gle is extremely ill managed : the wood is in general collected together and burnt, 
while i have known the expenses of clearing an extensive jungle repaid, by float- 
ing the wood down a river 100 miles off, to a populous town, where it was sold 
for firewood. Few zemindars would think of doing such a thing, and it must be 
confessed they occasionally meet with obstacles. A respectable landholder told 
me, that a fine triumphal arch, which was erected at a neighbouring station, tor 
the entre of Lord Amherst, cost him nearly 400 rupees worth of jhaoo jungle, 
which he was in the habit of selliug yearly for about that sum ; this jhaoo grew 
on the waste lands of a village, for which he probably did not pay more revenue 
than the value of the jhaoo cutting. 
The zemindars of other villages will always be ready to enter into the culture 
of any produce or mode of cultivation, which will, at the same time, give them 
proper remuneration, as they have shewn themselves ready to cultivate the best 
description of indigo plant, and with every success. Encouragement, and non- 
interference, in a certain measure, seems to be all that is necessary to secure 
their entering with zeal into measures of this sort. 
To the European labourer no encouragement can be held out. I have shewn 
that it is perfectly possible to obtain for himself a livelihood, as far as subsistence 
goes ; but, as has been stated, in the statistics of Anfipslielier the money rate of 
labour is so trifling, that it would be ridiculous attempting such a thing, and in 
