Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/199

KHE 191 commodity from one rupee to five rupees eight annas per maund, and the state thereby easily collects a large tax. It may be added here that the jail allowance is 5 sers 11 ohhatáks for all the prisoners, or one quarter chhaták per day. This is at the rate of about six sers for each. adult and three sers for each child; it is much below the rate sanctioned in some other provinces, and less than the amount which people will voluntarily consume (vide above statistics). The salt department declares that two sers per head are sufficient. It is probable that man would live in very tolerable health for years on this allowance; but as the experiment has admittedly never been tried, more exact statistics are awaited as to what longevity can be achieved on two sers of salt per annum, Condition of the agriculturists. The condition of the major portion of the agricultural peasantry is wretched in the extreme. Their clothing is insufficient, and their food, as we bave seen, consists either of kodo, and juár meal made into cakes, and eaten with dál, or of new rice, which is an unwholesome diet unless most carefully harvested. Very few of them ever touch wheaten bread, wbile condiments, such as ghi and spices, are used in quantities so minute as to fail of any material effect upon the vigour of the peasant. The rural population of Kheri are compelled in large numbers to watch their fields at night, in order to preserve them from the depredations of wild animals. They are perched upon platforms elevated eight feet above the ground, and thinly covered with brush-wood or thatch. During the winter months the cold in those cages is extreme. As a rule, the watcher's possess a blanket—often the only one in the family,—but not infrequently it is found that the whole household cannot, muster a single blanket to protect the field-wateher from the inclemency of the weather. Manufactures and trade. The district manufactures call for hardly any remarks. Weaving and cotton printing, both of the coarsest kind, are pursued by 3,155 and by 990 artificers respectively : Kheri pargana is the principal se of both, but there is no export of either product. Grain of all kinds is exported from the district, but it is impossible to give any exact statistics, because the returns only show what is sent out of the pro- vince. The other exports are turmeric, tobacco, timber of all kinds, sugar, syrup, hides, bullocks, and ghí. Catechu is made in large quantities throughout the northern parts of the district from the Acacia catechu, bere called Khair. The heart-wood is chopped out and boiled down by a caste called Khairis. Khas-khas (Andropogon muricatum), whose roots are used for making tattis, is exported in large quantities, being taken down the Gumti and the Gogra to Benares and Patna. The great fairs of Gola Gokarannáth are hopeful features in the district trade. There are two, ope in January, which is attended by almost 50,000 people, the other in February, which lasts about fifteen days, and at which 150,000 persons are said to assemble. The great fair is increasing rapidly in fame and number of attendants; goods worth about Rs. 150,000 being sold annually by traders from all parts of India,