MURSHIDABAD. 27 natural watercourses. Wells and artificial canals do not exist. Very liitle spare land remains that has not been brought under the plough. It is estimated that the average produce of an acre of land varies froni 15 to to cwts., according as it produces one or two crops; the value is put at from £1, 1os. to £t. The rates of rent in Murshidabad are low, as compared with neighbouring Districts, nor have they been much enhanced by the effect of recent legislation. They rary exceedingly, according to the position of the field, the quality of the crop grown, and the social status of the cultivator. According to an official return, dated 1872, the rates paid for high lands suitable for ins or early rice, range from is. 6d. to 7s. 6d. per acre; those paid for low lands suitable for áman or late rice, range from is. 60. to £1, 108. per acre. Lands growing special crops, such as vegetables, garden produce, etc., in the neiglibourhood of the cultivators' homesteads, pay from £2, 25. to £2, Ss. an acre. There is little that is peculiar in the land tenures of the District, beyond the rimnis or deer-parks held revenue-free by the Nawáb, and the cultivating tenure known as utbandi or fasli-jumu, according to which the niyat pays rent, not for his entire holding, but only for the land actually cultivated, the amount being determined by the nature of the crop grown. This tenure is mainly confined to the Hejál tract, in the south-west of the District, watered by the Dwarka river, and to some of the chars or alluvial accretions on both sides of the Bhagirathí. There is also a tenure, in which the rent is paid in kind, called bhog-jot, according to which the rúyat pays to the landlord one-half of the produce of his fields, instead of money. The sub-infeudation of estates has been carried out into many stages, their peculiar character and incidents differing in the several parganás. The ordinary rates of wages have risen somewhat of late years, but the price of food appears to have increased in a yet larger ratio. Between 1838 and 1880 the wages of a common coolie are reported to have increased from 6s. to Ss. or gs. per month; of an agricultural labourer, from 8s. to 1os., paid partly in kind; of village smiths and carpenters, from 12s. to 16s. and 18s. ; of town artisans, from 13s. to 155. or £1 per month. On the other hand, a table giving the prices of common rice during a period of thirty-four years, between 1836 and 1869, shows an average for the first twenty years of 2s. 7d. per cwt, against an average for the last fourteen years of us. Id. per cwt. For the twelve years 1870 to 1881, the average price of common rice was about 19 sers per rupee, or 55. Iid. per cwt. In 1870, the price of common rice was 45. 11d. per cwt.; in 1866, the year of dearth, it had risen as high as 18s. 2d. ; in 1874, the rate was gs. 2d. per cwt. ; in 1878, gs. per cwt ; in 1881 (an unusually favourable year), 4s. 4d. per cwt.; and in 1883-84 (an unfavourable year), from 4s. 8d. to Ss. per cwt. Murshidábád is not specially liable to flood or drought, and the
