In Tirhoot similar engagements are entered into with the ryots, who are there called Assamees. These engagements with Assamees are generally made in the month of September, on a written instrument called a noviskaun, by which they agree for a certain quantity of land, for five years, to be cultivated with indigo plant, and for which they are to be paid at the rate of six rupees per biggah, for every full field of plant measured by a luggie or measuring-rod. The luggie, it must be observed, varies in size throughout the district. In the southern and eastern divisions of Tirhoot and Sarun it is eight-and-a-half to ten feet long; and in the northern and western from twelve to fourteen feet. The Assamee receives, on the day of making his bundobust, or settlement, three rupees advance on each biggah he contracts for, another rupee per biggah when the crop is fit to weed, and the remaining two rupees at the ensuing settlement of accounts. Exclusive of the price of his maul or plant, the Assamee is entitled to receive two or three rupees per biggah (as may be agreed on) for gurkee, or lands that have failed, as a remuneration for his trouble, and to enable him to pay his rent. The foregoing are the principal stipulations of the noviskaun, but the Assamee further engages to give you such land as you may select, prepare it according to instructions from the factory, sow and weed as often as he is required, cut the plant and load the hackeries at his own cost, and in every other respect conform to the orders of the planter or his aumlah (managing man). The Assamee is not charged for seed, the cartage of his plants, or for the cost of drilling. I should mention that a penalty is attached to the non-fulfilment of the Assamees engagements, commonly called hurjah, viz., twelve rupees for every biggah short of his agreement, and this for every year that the noviskaun has to run. This is, however, seldom recoverable, for if you sue the Assamee in court and obtain a decree (a most expensive and dilatory process), he can in most instances easily evade it by a fictitious transfer of his property to other hands.
The planter generally finds it his interest to get the Zemindar of the village in which he proposes cultivating, to join in the noviskaun, as a further security; or he engages with a jytedar, or head Assamee, having several others subordinate to him, and for whose conduct he is responsible. But a still better system is lately gaining ground in this district, I mean that of taking villages in ticka, or farm, by far the best and cheapest plan that has ever been resorted to for the cultivation of indigo.
When the planter cultivates the ground himself, it is called in Tirhoot Zerant cultivation. Zerants, or Neiz, are taken on a pottah or lease for five years, at the average rent of three rupees per biggah. The heavy cost attending this cultivation has occasioned its decrease in most factories in Tirhoot and particularly since the fall in prices. About a third, I believe, was the proportion it formerly bore to the whole cultivation of the district, but of late such factories only have retained it as cannot procure sufficient good land under the Assamewar system; but now that the plan of taking villages in farm is becoming more and more prevalent here, it is very likely that Zerants will be entirely abandoned. From all the information I have been able to collect, the cost of a biggah of Zerant (ten feet luggie) may be estimated at sixteen rupees; that of Assamewar is generally twenty-five per cent. less, both exclusive of interest, agents' charges, and private expenses.
It can only be the reluctance of the ryot to cultivate indigo that induces a manufacturer to grow it himself, for it has been found an expensive plan, profitable only when the dye is at its highest rate, and even then scarcely furnishing an adequate return. They not only could not cultivate so cheaply as the native laboring husbandman, but ordinarily had to engage extensive tracts of land, much of which was not suitable for their purpose, or, perhaps, for any other, and consequently, although the average rate of rent was even low on the whole, it constituted a very heavy charge on the portion from which they obtained their return.
In Oude there are three systems of obtaining a supply of the plant, viz., Kush Kurreea, Bighowty, and Nij; but the latter is a mere trifle in proportion to the others, and is, therefore, not worth mentioning. On the Bighowty system, which prevails chiefly in the Meerut and Mooradabad districts, the planter advances for a biggah of Jumowah (irrigated sowings) nine rupees, and for a biggah of Assaroo (rain sowings) five rupees four annas. The next year's plant, or khoonti, becomes his on an additional payment of eight annas per biggah. He also supplies the seed at the rate of six seers per biggah, being almost double the quantity made use of in Bengal, but which is necessary to make up for the destruction of the plant the year following by the frost, white ants, hot winds, grass cutters, and, I may add, the village cattle, which are let loose to graze on the khoonte during the latter period, when not a blade of grass or vegetation is to be seen anywhere left.
The Bighowty system is a sadly ruinous one, as, independently of the attempts to assimilate Assaroo, at five rupees four annas, with Jumowah, at nine rupees per biggah, which is very easily effected if the planter is not very vigilant, he is obliged to maintain an extensive and imposing establishment of servants, not only to enforce the sowings, weeding, and cutting, but also to look after his khoonte, and protect it from being destroyed by bullocks and grass cutters, or from being ploughed up clandestinely by the Zemindars themselves.
The Kush Kurreea system again has its evils, as the planter never gets plant for the full amount of his advances, and hence often leads to his ruin.
Soils.—Indigo delights in a fresh soil; new lands, of similar staple to others before cultivated, always surpass them in the amount and quality of their produce. Hence arises the superior productiveness of the lands annually overflowed by the Ganges, the earthy and saline deposits from which in effect renovate the soil. The further we recede from the influence of the inundation, the less adapted is the soil for the cultivation of indigo. The staple of the soil ought to be silicious, fertile, and deep. Mr. Ballard, writing on the indigo soils of Tirhoot, says that high "soomba," or light soils, are generally preferred, being from their nature and level less exposed to the risk of rain or river inundation; but they are difficult to procure, and, moreover, require particular care in the preparation. Next in estimation is "doruss," a nearly equal mixture of light earth and clay; a soil more retentive of moisture in a dry season than any other. "Muttyaur," or heavy clay soils, are generally avoided, although in certain seasons, with mild showers of rain, they have been known to answer. The safest selection I should conceive to be an equal portion of soomba and doruss. In a country, however, interspersed with jheels and nullahs, it is difficult to form a cultivation without a considerable mixture of low lands, more or less, according to the situation of the Assamee's fields. Great care should be taken, at all events, to guard against oosur lands, or such as abound with saltpetre; these can be most easily detected in the dry months. Puchkatak, that is, lands slightly touched with oosur, have been known to answer, as partaking more of the nature of doruss soil; but the crop is generally thin, although strong and branchy.
There is another description of land that should be cautiously avoided. It goes by the name of jaung, and is a light soil, with a substratum of sand from six to twelve inches below the surface. The plant generally looks very fine in such fields till it gets a foot high, when the root touching the sand, and having no moisture to sustain it, either dies away altogether, or becomes so stunted and impoverished as to yield little or nothing in the cutting. Of the daub or dearab (alluvial) land, says Mr. Ballard, there is scarcely any in the district except what falls to the lot of my own factories, being situated on the banks of the Ganges and Great Gunduck. Of bungur, a stiff reddish clay soil, there is little in Tirhoot; it pervades the western provinces, and is best adapted for Assaroo sowings, which do not succeed in Tirhoot.
Preparation of the soil.—The root of the indigo plant being fusiform, and extending to about a foot in length, requires the soil to be loosened thoroughly to that depth at least. Experience teaches that the fineness of the tilth to which the soil is reduced previously to the seed being committed to it, is one very influential operation for the obtaining a productive crop. Yet in some districts of Bengal, particularly about Furudpore, the sowing is performed without any previous ploughing. This is where the river, when receded, has left the soil and deposit so deep, that about October, or a little later, the seed being forcibly discharged from the sower's hand, buries itself, and requires no after covering by means of the rake or harrow.