GENERAL CONDITIONS. ACCORDING to the census of 1901, 56 per cent of the population of the district are employed, or directly interested, in agriculture. This percentage is remarkably low,^* being less than that in any other district in the Province, except Hooghly and Howrah, which show 53.8 and 42.3 per cent., respectively, of their populations as engaged in agriculture. This is accounted for to a certain extent by the fact that Nadiā has a relatively high urban population, but the main reason is the infertility of the land. The soil varies but little all over the district; except for the tract, known as the Kālantar, and some portions of the Kushtiā and Rānāghāt Subdivisions, it is almost universally a light sandy loam, possessing but little fertilising power, and incapable of retaining moisture. In earlier days, before the rivers had completed their work of land making, the district was far more liable than it is now to considerable inundations, which, although they might destroy the crop which was actually standing at the time of their visitations, brought with them a coating of silt, which ensured an excellent, outturn for the following crop. This enrichment of the soil, however, no longer takes place as frequently as it is used to, and as the very light manuring which is applied is insufficient to compensate for the loss occasioned to the soil by cropping, there can be little doubt that land is getting less and less capable of giving a good return.^† This is particularly noticeable in the steady diminution which has been taking place of late in the net area cropped in the district, which means that it is becoming increasingly necessary to allow the land to lie [Page 68] fallow for longer periods between croppings. During the last five years for which statistics are available, the average area or culturable waste other than fallow was about 348,000 acres; of current fallows, about 400,000 acres; and of net cropped land, about 520,000 acres; in other words the net cropped area was only about 41 per cent. of the total culturable area. The corresponding percentages in the two sister districts of Khulnā and Jessore for the same years were about 74 and 89, respectively. The only conclusion that can be drawn from these figures is that the soil in Nadiā is not sufficiently fertile to enable the same percentage of the population to depend upon agriculture as would be the case were the district more favourably circumstanced in this respect than it is. Other reasons have been suggested, such as the precarious nature of the tenure under which a large proportion of the land is held, and loss of vitality and energy among the inhabitants owing to repeated attacks of malaria; but though these may be contributing causes, there seems little doubt that the main reason why the percentage of the population engaged upon agriculture is so comparatively low in Nadiā is that the land is, on account of its infertility, incapable of affording a livelihood to a large percentage.

The physical characteristics of the district are almost uniform throughout, and the agricultural conditions vary but little. The only tract of any size which presents any marked differences from the general average is that known as the Kālantar. This tract commences in the Murshidābād district, comes into Nadiā through the gap on the western boundary between the Bhāgirathi and the Jalangi, and stretches through the district in a south-easterly direction. It is about 15 miles long and 8 miles broad. It is low-lying, and the surface soil has hardened into a comparatively stiff black clay, which, under favourable conditions, produces a good crop of āman rice, but is too water-logged for any autumn crop, and is unsuitable for regular winter crops. The inhabitants of this tract, being dependent upon the one crop, which is liable in some years to be swept away by violent floods, and in other years, when the monsoon fails, to die for want of moisture, are naturally more exposed to famine than those of the other parts of the district, where a second crop may afford some compensation for loss of the first.

No irrigation is practised in the district, the chief reason being that the surface is so uniformly level as to afford little or no scope for canals and distributaries.

There is no record to show the extent to which the district suffered in the famine of 1769-70.

According to the "Jumma Bandobust teshkhees kool", an account which appears to have been rendered officially by the kanungos to the Naib acting on behalf of the East India Company as sovereign representative of the Mughal Emperor, the total net revenue of the district was nearly eleven lakhs in the year 1763, and at this rate it was settled with Mahārājā Krishna Chandra. At the first settlement after the acquisition of the Diwāni by the East India Company, the jama was reduced by Muhammad Reza Khān to Rs. 3,74,964. On this point, and on subsequent variations, Mr. J. Grant wrote as follows in his "Analysis of the Revenue of Bengal":--"No hustabood seems to have been then formed of the modern actual value of the district. It was assessed generally on the Ausil by towfeers and abwabs. In this state it might have been expected that, if remissions had really been necessary, the amount would have fallen upon the new additional increases. Yet the contrary happened, and the deductions were made from the standard toomary jumma or the old well-established profits accruing on the jageer lands. From this time forward the ostensible formal bundobust seems to have been slowly decreasing until the year 1778 immediately after the [Page 106] famine and on dismission of the Naib Dewan, when suddenly it was raised, no doubt, on very sufficient grounds, beyond all former example to a gross annual demand of Rs. 12,66,266.

"To conclude, in 1190 (1783 A. D.), the clear revenue stipulated for, notwithstanding a formal increase of one lack of rupees, stated to have been brought on at the institution of the Committee in 1188, did not much, if at all, exceed eight lacks of rupees, so that, in right and moderation equitable policy, three lacks ought to be regarded as the recoverable defalcation or effective increase capable of realization on the latter jumma, payable to the exchequer, forming the comparison with the rent roll originally established before the reduced settlement of M. R. Khan in 1765. Considering, indeed, the vast known resources of this fertile extensive district (exclusive of arable lands turned into pasture, to evade payment of the expedient dues of Government, of fraudulent alienations of territory, with collusive reductions chiefly in favour of Brahmins, of the ancient rates of assessment specified in the Pottahs of the ryots), the improvement of which its finances are immediately susceptible, might fairly be stated at seven lacks."

Generally speaking, Mr. Grant formed the opinion that the resources of the country had been much under-estimated. Mr. Shore, however, in his minute of June 1789, contended that this proposition was a fallacy, and that the then assessment was nearly equal to what it should be. The opinion of the former prevailed, and in the permanent settlement the land revenue for the district was fixed at Rs. 12,55,325.