Landholders, who do not cultivate their own estates, in general let them for one-half of the grain produced. Money rent can seldom be procured, and is very low. It varies from four to twelve anas a Rupini, which produces at least four Muris of Paddy, one half of which, or the rent usual when paid in kind, is worth about fifty anas, and if it be good land, it produces also a winter crop.
Most great proprietors, however, like the Raja, employ stewards with their servants and slaves, to cultivate some land for supplying their families. The great, therefore, seldom go to market, which, among a lawless people, is an advantage for the lower classes, although it subjects travellers to great inconveniency from the want of markets. It is besides alleged, that the lower classes, in the vicinity of these farms, often suffer by being compelled to labour without an adequate remuneration.
When lands are alienated by sale, they bring from 1600 to 2000 Mohurs a Khet, which high price is owing to the very small quantity of land that is brought to market.
The persons who rent lands from the owners are of two kinds: first, the Kuriyas, who occupy free (Khairat) land, are exempted from any services to government, except the repairing of roads, and the attending on armies employed on certain duties; and, secondly, the Prajas, who occupy the crown land, whether that be held by the Prince, or granted in Jaygir. The Prajas are bound to perform various services at the call, both of government and of their immediate masters. The rent which both usually pay is one-half of the produce, with an annual fine of between two and three rupees for each Khet. Where the land is tolerable, these terms are considered as
favourable for the tenant, and enable him to support a family with ease.
The following is the account which my Brahman gives of the agriculture of the Newars.
The hoe used by the Newars has been represented by Colonel Kirkpatrick, (in the uppermost figure of the plate opposite to page 100 of his Account of Nepaul,) but the figure is not good. It seems a very awkward instrument, as the blade is fixed by a long neck, so as to stand parallel to the short handle, at about the distance or six inches. The labourer, therefore, must either stoop exceedingly, when at work, or must sit on his heels, which is the most usual posture. Still these people use it with great dexterity, and one man in three days digs up a Rupini. After each hoeing, the women and children break the clods with a wooden mallet fixed to a long shaft, which does not require them to stoop. Almost the only other implement of agriculture these people have is the Khuripi, or weeding iron, and some fans for winnowing the corn. In Nepal, however, they have in some measure made a further progress than in India, as they have numerous water-mills for grinding corn. The stones are little larger than those of hand-mills, and the upper one is turned round by being fixed on the end of the axis of the water wheel, which is horizontal, and is placed under the floor of the mill, with which the stones are on a level. This wheel consists of six blades, about three feet long, and six inches broad, which are placed obliquely in the axle-tree. On these blades, the water falls down an inclined plane of about eight or ten feet in perpendicular height. The hopper is a basket perforated at the bottom, but has no contrivance to shake it. The people at one of the mills which we examined said, that, in one day, it could grind twelve Muris, or rather more than twenty-nine bushels.
In Nepal, rice is the great crop, and the ground fit for it is of two kinds, which differ in the manner, and in the time of their cultivation, so as to make two harvests of rice: but no one field, in one year, produces two crops of this grain.
Colonel Kirkpatrick indeed mentions, [222] that some fields yield two crops of rice successively, the one coarse, and the other fine, besides affording in the same year a crop of wheat. This, however, I presume, does not allude to Nepal Proper, but to some of the warmer vallies in the dominions of Gorkha; as where he goes on, in the 99th page, to describe the expense of cultivation, he mentions the ploughings, an operation which is not employed in the agriculture of the Newars.
The first kind of ground produces the crop called Gheya, is the highest, and there is no necessity for its being absolutely level, as the fields are not inundated. From the 13th of March to the 11th of April, this ground is hoed; and, having been well manured with dung collected in the streets, it is hoed again. A week after this, the field is hoed two or three times, and is well pulverized with the mallet. About the 12th of May, after a shower of rain, the field is slightly hoed, and the mould is broken, and smoothed with the hand. Small drills, at a span’s distance from each other, are then made by the finger, which is directed straight by a line. At every span-length in these drills are placed four or five seeds of the rice, called Uya Dhan, which is the only kind cultivated in this manner. The seed is covered by the hand, and a very small quantity only is required. In about five days the young corn comes up in small tufts, just as if it had been transplanted. From the 13th of June to the 15th of August, when the corn is about a cubit high, the weeds are removed with the spud. About the