ORISSA. 459 classes of soil, from the dry uplands to the deep swamps. One variety is sown on low lands in December or January, and is reaped in March or April; another is sown on high lands in May or June, and reaped in July or August; a third, sown at the same time, is reaped in September; a fourth, sown on lands of middling elevation, is reaped in October; a fifth, sown on low lands throughout the whole Province at the beginning of the rains, yields the great harvest of the year in December. Rice is the bountiful gift of nature to a deltaic population, and is associated in the most intimate manner with the domestic ceremonies of their lives, and with their worship of the gods. They distinguish cach stage of its growth and of its preparation as an article of food. Besides rice, they have wheat, many varieties of pulse and pease, oil seeds-especially mustard-hemp, tobacco, cotton, sugarcane, the costly betel-leaf, tubers, and vegetables of many kinds. The rates of rent vary according to the quality of the soil From 6s. to ros. an acre may be taken as the rent of first-class winter rice land, or of the best two-crop land. Medium soils pay a rent of from 25. 6d. to 5s., and inferior lands from 9d. an acre upwards. Expensive and specially exhausting crops, such as tobacco and sugar-cane, pay as high as 255. an acre, but their average rent is from 125. to 18s. In 1883-84, common rice sold at 42 lbs. for the rupee (25.), and wheat at from 22 lbs. to 28 lbs. the rupee; gram (a pulse), from 32 lbs. to 36 lbs. ; salt, from 24 lbs. to 32 lbs. In Puri District, 10 acres are considered a fair-sized farm, and 30 acres a large holding. In Cuttack District, it is estimated that small holdings of less than 10 acres absorb one-half of the total cultivated area. Very few farms exceed 25 acres. In the District of Balasor, with its 656,000 acres of cultivable land, there are not more than one hundred holdings of from 20 to 100 acres; and the few farms that exist of these dimensions are generally held by families of brethren, who cultivate the land in common. Sixty per cent. of the whole farms are below 10 acres, and these are frequently held by several cultivators in common. The zamindárs make advances of money and seed to the tenants. Land Revenue.—The total land revenue collected in British Orissa in 1883-84 was £176,942, of which £.18,641 represented arrears. The number of estates from which the collection was made was 5839. The number of permanently settled estates was 174 (£14,680); of temporarily settled estates, 5634 (£136,945); and of riyatwóri tracts, 31 (£25,317). During 1883-84 the revenue courts disposed of 3629 suits to recover arrears of rent. The total amount of road nd public works cesses collecteu in 1883-84 was f22,483. The area under irrigation was 48,359 acres (of which 45,981 acres were situated in Cuttack); land revenue demand on irrigated area, £ 19,381, or 8s. an acre.
