STATISTICS OF CULTIVATION

Occupied And Cropped Area

Of the total area of the District in 1905-06, 532 square miles or 14 percent consisted of Government forest ,343 square miles or 9 percent were classed are not available for cultivation and 419 square miles or 11 percent were shown as culturable waste other then follow. The remaining area amounting to 2554 square miles or 1,630,000 acres, and constituting 66 percent of the total or 77 percent of the village area excluding Government forest, was occupied for cultivation, even the 30 years settlement the occupied area was 1,400, 000 acres or 67 percent of the village area at that time. In the intervening period up to Mr. Craddock’s settlement, abut 42 square miles of Government wastes were made available for cultivation . At that settlement (1819-93), the occupied area was 1,570,000 acres, or 12 percent, during the thirty years. During the ensuing 40 years up to 1905-06, the settlement figure. At Mr. Craddock’s settlement the unoccupied area, excluding Government forest, 845 square miles and he estimated that 340 square miles of this were actually culturable. About 100 square miles have since been taken up, at the rate of about 4500 acres a year, or very nearly the same as the average annual increase during the thirty years settlement. It may be estimated that the future progress will be slower. At settlement the proportion of occupied to total area in each tahasil was :- Nagpur 79; Umrer 70, Ramtek 74, Katol 75. The corresponding figures for 1905 –06 were :- Nagpur 81, Umere 72, Ramtek 78, Katol 78.

Fallows : -

Of the occupied area in1905-06, a total of 220,000acres of 14 percent were under new and old fallow, the new fallow being 40,000 acres the old 180,000. At settlement 310,000 acres of 20 percent of the occupied area were fallow, and the cropping is now there for considerably more close .The proportion of cropped to occupied area in each tahasil at settlement, the balance being fallow, was Nagpur 79, Umrer 71, Ramtek 83, Katol 88. Mr. Craddock remarked on this subject; ‘The Katol tahasil is the best cultivated , spite of the larger proportion of stony land which it contains; Ramtek comes next and Umrer in last. Some allowance must be made in Umrer for the fact of that the surface undulating and dries rapidly, but the tahasil is as a whole much under cultivated. The cultivators there are least industrious; holdings are large and rents low ; while the number of uninhabited villages, known as riths, disproportionately high. Though its best soil are inferior to the best of the soil of Kotol, it has a much smaller proportion of poor land, and resting fallows are seldom a real necessity. There is thus great scope for increase of cropping in Umrer as well as over part of Nagpur tahasil where similar conditions prevail.

‘Closer and more careful cropping might be expected in the Nagpur tahasil than in localities further removed from the city. But the country is the case. A large number of holdings in villages round the capital belong to Brahmans of Nagpur, and other absentee cultivators, whose farms are not properly supervised, and among the regular agriculture classes holding land in the neighborhood many pay more attention to bringing fuel and grass into the town for sale, or to plying cart for hire, than to the cultivation of their lands. Cow-dung manure is made up into fuel cakes instead of being utilized in the fields, and bullocks are used for drawing carts when they should be at the plough. As one gets further from Nagpur these cause cease to operate, and some of the outlying parts of the tahasil are much better cultivated ’. Mr. Craddock calculated that if the cropping within the occupied was as close over the rest of the of the District as in the Katol tahasil, another 128,000 acres would be added to the cropped area. As has already been seen the fallow land has since decreased by 90,000 acres or rather more than half of these amount

Cropped Area

The total cropped are in 1905-06 was nearly 1,420,000 acres for the maximum recorded. At settlement the cropped area was 1,260,000 acres and the increase has been 153,000 acres for 12 percent in 14 years. As has been shown the increase has been obtained both by expansion of the occupied area and contraction of fallows. At the 30 years settlement the cropped area was 1,150,000 acres and the increase up to last settlement was 114,000 acres in the 14 years since settlement. Nagpur has the eight largest cropped areas in the combined provinces, being exceeded by the three Chhattisgarh Districts and all the Berar Districts.

Double Crops

In 1905-06, double crops were grown on 6000 acres and the net cropped area was 1,411,000 acres. After crops are grown principally in the rice tracts, the pulse urad and lakhori being sown in the damp fields. Late rain is necessary for second crops; the maximum area cropped twice was 17,000 acres in 1897-98 when the late rains were heavy and the minimum 2000 acres in the famine years of 1899-1900.

Distribution of Crops

At settlement the spring and autumn harvests were of nearly equal importance, the former occupying 49 and the latter 51 percent of the cropped area. Since the settlement the greatly increased production of cotton has largely altered the proportion of the harvests and 1905-06 autumn crops occupied nearly 1, 050,000 acres, or 73 percent of the cropped area, and spring crops only 370,000 acres, or 27 percent.

Mr. Craddock describes the agricultural character of the different part of the District as follows:- the north Bhiugarh and Dongartal tracks ( were the large blocks of Government forest included in the east and west Pench ranges are situated ) bear considerable resemblance to the Satpura country, which they border. The soil met with in them is mostly light, the villages small and poor, and the cultivators belong to the aboriginal tribes, consisting principally of Gonds and Gowaris. On the other hand, in the whole of the country drained by the Wardha river and its tributaries, we find land of exceptional fertility, producing both rabi and kharif crops, interspersed with many garden villages. Even in the more rugged portion of the Katol tahasil the flat topped stone covered trap hills which abound, in season of adequate rainfall, will grow excellent crops of juar and cotton. The wainganga plain is essentially the wheat tract of the District, and wheat, linseed and pulses of the principle crops produced. The rainfall is to heavy for cotton and juar is not very successful, except on well drained areas met with the along river tracts which border it. On the east the Bhandara border, rice is some of importance, and tanks ponds abound .On the east where the Wunna valley is approached, autumn crops are more important. The agriculture character of the country lying between the two main divisions of the of the District has also distinction of its own. But it may be generally said of it, that in the north (the country round Kalmeshwar and Saoner ) it resemble the rich portion of Wardha valley, in the south (the Wunna valley) it is more like the poorer portion of the Katol tahasil. The remaining division of the country, or the Nand valley, which consist of the Sirsi and the portion of the Bela groups, is wheat growing tracts. The portion of juar, cotton and other kharif crops produced is remarkably small. This tract is still much under cultivated the tenantry are lazy and resourceless. They pay unduly low rents, and allow half their holding to be fallow.

Statistics of Crops

In 1905-06 cotton covered 476,000 acres or 34 percent of the cropped area, juar 423 acres or 30 percent , wheat 211,000 acres or 15 percent ,linseed 67,000 acres or 5 percent, arhar 115,000 acres or 6 percent, and til ,rice and tiura between 20,000 and 30,000 acres each At settlement wheat and juar were of equivalent importance covering each 25 percent of the cropped area, while cotton and linseed occupied 12 percent each. The District thus four staple crops, while it may now almost be said to depend on two.