Crops.

In 1880-81, of 476,693 acres, the total area of tilled land, 171,858 or 36.05 per cent were fallow or under grass. Of the remaining 304,835 acres, 4636 were twice cropped. Of the 309,47.1 acres under tillage, grain crops occupied 285,490 acres or 92.27 per cent, 141,144 of them under rice, bhat, Oryza sativa; 63,579 under ragi or nachni, Eleusine coracana; 49,097 under vari, Panicum miliare; 31,669 under kodra, Paspalum scrobiculatum, and one under wheat, gaku, Triticum aestivum. Pulses occupied 15,031 acres or 4.35 per cent, 5899 of them under udid, Phaseolus mungo; 1796 under gram, harbhara, Gicer arietinum; 1686 under tur, Cajanus indicns; 1488 under mug, Phaseolus radiatus; one under kulith, Dolichos biflorus; and 4161 under other pulses. Oilseed occupied 4609 acres or 1.48 per cent, 4413 of them under gingelly seed, til, Sesamum indicum; and 196 under other oilseeds. Fibres occupied 1522 acres or 0.49 per cent, of which 1497 acres were under Bombay hemp, tag, Crotolaria juncea; and 25 under cotton, kapus, Gossypium herbaceum. Miscellaneous crops occupied 2819 acres or 091 per cent, 65 of them under sugarcane, us, Saccharum officinarum; and the remaining 2754 under various vegetables and fruits.

Rice.

The following are the chief details of the more important crops:  Rice, bhat, Oryza sativa, holds the first place, with, in 1880-81, 141,144 acres or 45.60 per cent of the whole tillage area. The twenty-four chief sorts of rice belong to two main groups, red rice and white rice. Red rice is inferior and is grown only in salt lowlying lands near creeks which are liable to be flooded by spring tides. White rice grows only in lands beyond the reach of salt water. Of the sixteen sorts of white or sweet soil rice, seven, known as early or halve, ripen about the middle of October, and nine, known as late or garvi, about a month later. [The seven early are panvel, pandre, nirpunj, mahdai, avehite, kacheri, and nadhalam ; the nine late are patni, dedkai, ombamohar, bodkai, kothimbri, tamdisal, jiraisal, kolamb, and kinjal. The remaining eight sorta of rice are manjarvel, harkhel, ratal, malkudai, vailehi, morchuka, kilanz, and bhadas.] Of the sweet rice lands, some, chiefly in the southern sub-divisions near the villages of Mahad, Ghodegaon, Birvadi, Latvan, Nateh, and Poladpur, grow cold weather crops of tur, gram, and other pulse. But over the greater part of the district the rice lands lie bare during the cold weather. During the cold weather months patches in the fields are covered with a thin layer of cowdung on which a second layer of brushwood and tree-loppings is laid, and, above this, grass is spread to the depth of a foot. Earth is scattered on the grass, and the whole is set on fire early on some morning towards the end of the hot season. In June, just before the rains, the ground is strewn with seed, and then ploughed along with the wood and dung ashes. After a few heavy showers, [A seasonable rainfall would be in June twenty inches, in July twenty, in August thirty, in September fifteen, and in October five. Failure of rain just after the rice is transplanted is fatal to the crops. Famine Commission Report, 17.] the plants begin to shoot, and are allowed to grow for three weeks or a month. When the soil is thoroughly softened they are pulled up in little bunches of from six to eight seedlings, and planted, from eight to ten inches apart, in soil previously ploughed and cleared of weeds. The rice is weeded by hand about a month after planting. It is reaped in the end of October or the beginning of November. After drying for some days in the field, the rice is tied in sheaves, and, about a month later, is threshed by beating the sheaves against a well-cleaned threshing floor, and the whole is afterwards winnowed. [In lands near rivers a second crop is sown.] In salt rice land neither ploughing nor manure is required. When the ground is well soaked with rain, the seed is either thrown into the mud, or, when the land is low, it is wetted and placed in a heap until it sprouts, when it is thrown into the mud or on the surface of the water. After the plants have grown a little, crowded patches are thinned and bare spaces planted. The chief labour and expense in growing salt rice is the making and mending of the banks. Every field is surrounded by a bank from two to four feet high according to its distance from a creek. This bank has to be renewed every year and kept in repair during the time the crop is on the ground. During spring tides it must be carefully watched day and night. If by any oversight the field is flooded by salt water, years pass before it again yields a good crop. The reaping and threshing of salt rice is the same as of sweet rice.

Ragi

Ragi or Nachni, Eleusine coracana, holds the second place, with, in 1880-81, 63,579 acres or 20.54 per cent of the entire tillage. It is mostly raised in the two southern sub-divisions of Mangaon and Mahad. Nachni is grown both on hill slopes and on uplands near rice fields. On hill slopes the soil is cleared of brushwood and the brushwood burnt as manure. The surface is smoothed, and, when sufficiently wetted by rain, the seed is thrown into the mud. Beyond watching that animals do not destroy the field no trouble is taken until the crop is reaped by plucking on the ears. The ears are thrown into a blanket and the seed worked out by the feet. In growing nachni on uplands near rice fields, the soil is covered with cowdung and grass which is burnt during the cold weather. It is then ploughed twice soon after the first rainfall, and is again ploughed twice at a week's interval. The other processes are the same as in growing rice in sweet rice land.

Vari.

Vari, Panicum miliare, holds the third place, with, in 1880-81,49,097 acres or 15.86 per cent of the entire tillage. It is raised mostly in Roha, Mangaon, and Mahad, and is always grown after nachni. Except that on the steeper slopes brushwood is not burnt, as the soil keeps enough power from the former year's burning, the style of tillage is the same as in nachni tillage.

Harik or Kodra, Paspalum scrobiculatum, holds the fourth place with, in 1880-81, 31,669 acres or 10.23 per cent of the entire tillage. It grows either on flat land or on the steep slopes of hills, and is raised chiefly in Mangaon and to some extent in Roha and Mahad. Harik follows vari and does not require the soil to have brushwood burnt on it. The soil is ploughed four times after the first rainfall, and the seed is sown broadcast. The crop is once weeded by hand and ripens about the end of October or the beginning of November, The grain has a narcotic property, which, to a certain extent, is neutralised by steeping it in a mixture of cowdung and water before grinding it. Even after it has been steeped, harik has an unpleasant effect on those not accustomed to it.

Pulse.

Of 15,031 acres under pulse, 5899 were under black gram, udid, Phaseolas mungo. It is grown chiefly in Mangaon, Roha, and, Mahad after the rice crop has been reaped. For the udid crop the soil is ploughed three times, and the clods of earth are broken by the hand. No manure is used and the seed is sown broadcast. The crop ripens about March. Udid flour is used as food in a variety of ways, and the stalks of the plant are a good fodder for cattle Of other pulses tur and mug are grown in Roha, Mangaon, and Mahad, and gram in Mangaon only.

Sesamum.

Sesamum, til, Sesamum indicum, occupying, in 1880-81, 4413  acres, is raised mostly in Mangaon and Mahad, and grows best on fairly flat land. The soil does not require to have brushwood burnt on it and is only ploughed twice after rain has fallen.: No manure is used and the seed is sown broadcast from the middle to the end of June. The crop does not require to be weeded and ripens about the beginning of November.

Hemp.

Hemp, tag, Crotolaria juncea, grown almost entirety in Mangaon, had, in 1880-81, 1497 acres under tillage. It is sown in November after the rice is harvested. The soil is roughly ploughed twice and the seed sown broadcast. The stalks are uprooted in March and steeped in water, until the bark, which contains the fibre, can be stripped by the hand. Hemp is used for making nets and ropes, and is sent in small quantities to Bombay, Satara, Poona, and Ratnagiri. Hemp torches are made by tying together, in four or five places, about 200 stalks with their fibres, each torch being about three feet long and ten inches round. Hemp matches are also made by Bohoras who cut each stalk into about six pieces and dip the ends into a solution of sulphur.

Betel Leaf.

Betel-leaf, pan, is grown to a considerable extent in the plantations between Alibag and Chaul. the soil is well ploughed and dug, ridges are made, and the betel-vine cuttings planted on the ridges, Tur sticks are set in the ground for the vines to grow up. They are shaded with palm leaves and manured with fish. If well watered the creeper yields after the first year. During the rains the leaves are largely sent to Bombay.

Betel Palm.

The Betel-palm, sopari, is grown in large numbers, from 50,000 to 60,000, in cocoa-palm plantations along the Alibag coast. After the nuts have dried and fallen to the ground they are buried about two inches deep in loosened and levelled soil. When the seedlings are a year old, they are planted out in July and buried about two feet deep. The soil is then enriched by a mixture of salt and nachni, sometimes with the addition of cowdung. During the first four months the plant does not require watering. After four months, it is watered either daily or at an interval of one or two days. A well watered betel-palm begins to yield nuts in its fifth or sixth year. But if water is stinted the tree does not begin to bear till it is eight, nine or ten years old. The tree yields twice and sometimes thrice in a year, about 250 nuts being considered an average yearly yield. The price in the local market is about 700 or 800 nuts for 2s. (Re. 1). The nuts are not inferior to Thana nuts and are sent to Bombay where they are sold at from 6s. to 8s. (Rs. 3-Rs. 4) a man. [ A detailed-account of the culture of betel palms 19 given in the Thana statistical Account, Bombay Gazetteer, XIII. 298-300.]

Mango.

The Mango, amba, Mangifera indica, grows wild throughout the district; but grafted mangoes are little grown except in Alibag, Chaul, and Revdanda, The common mangoes are sent green to Bombay for pickling.

Pine Apples.

The Pineapple, ananas, Ananassa saliva, grows mostly in Chaul and Revdanda. It does not want manure, and when properly shaded and watered the fruit reaches a large size and is very sweet. Pine-apples ore generally sold at from 1d. to 1½d. (8 ps.-1 anna) a piece, and are mostly bought for export to Bombay where they fetch from 6d, to 1s. (4 as.-8 as.) each. From 10,000 to 15,000 are yearly sent from Chaul to Bombay.

Husbandmen.

The chief Kolaba husbandmem are Kunbis, Marathas, Musalmans, Mhars, and Brahmans. Bhandaris, Chavkalshis, and Pachkalshis are gardeners rather than husbandmen. Very few Brahmans work in the fields with their own hands. They hold land both as proprietors and tenants, and either employ labourers, or sublet the land to tenants who pay them a fixed share of the produce. Near Thal, on the shore about six miles north of Alibag, are several villages chiefly of Bhandaris and Kolis, but in no villages do all the people belong to one caste. Bhandari husbandmen are found entirely on the coast, Marathas chiefly in inland villages, Musalmans and Mhars in the south sub-division of Mahad, and Kunbis over the whole district.

The Kunbi generally lives in a small house with mud and gravel walls, and a thatched gabled roof held up by wooden posts lot in at the corners. The raftere are generally bamboos, and the thatch bundles of rice and coarse straw. A rough wooden frame, let into the wall, supports a small door made as often el split bamboos as of wood, and one or two small holes in the wall serve to let in a little air and light and to let out smoke. The inside is generally divided into two compartments, a larger, where the family cook and live in the day time, and a smaller the sleeping and storeroom. At the gable ends of the house there is usually a lean-to-shed in which cattle and field tools are kept, and grass and wood stored, A Maratha's house is generally better and neater than a Kunbi's, with-sun-dried brick walls, tiled roof, a front veranda, and, in the fair season, an outer booth of palm leaf matting, with carefully cowdunged floor. Most Brahmans and Musalmans live in well-built houses raised on stone plinths. The walls are of masonry or burnt brick and the roofs are tiled. The wood work is strong, and the door and window frames are neatly put together. The village Mhar usually lives in a small shapeless roughly built hut with mud walls and thatched roof. The Kunbi generally owns a pair of bullocks, a cow or buffalo, and a few hens. His field tools are a plough, three harrows one with short wooden teeth, a log for crushing clods, and a flat smoothing board. He has also two or three picks, billhooks, hoes, and sickles, and half a dozen clod-crushing mallets. His household gear is a few copper and brass cups and saucers, and two or three cooking pots. Ho carries his water and cooks his food in earthen vessels. A few of the better class store enough nachni or harik to support their families for a few months after harvest and to supply seed, but, as a rule, Kunbis have no store of grain. Except that, in the matter of household goods, they are often better off than Kunbis, these details apply to most Maratha husbandmen. In Mahad and Mangaon, much of which is rocky and barren, the Kunbis are extremely poor. The Kunbi is an orderly and hardworking husbandman, very skilful in damming streams and cutting water-courses for rice fields. Wherever the soil suits and there is water he grows garden crops and uses manure freely. The Maratha is orderly and steady, but in a less degree than the Kunbi, and his style of tillage shows that he has not the same patient endurance of hard work. The Musalman is a bad cultivator. He has no energy and no perseverance, and many Musalmans, who are fishers and sailors in the fair season, are less dependent than other husbandmen on the success of their tillage. They use manure freely, but are less careful about ploughing and weeding, and seldom cultivate fields of poor soil. The Mhars are skilled in cutting the staves used as roof props and in building stone embankments, temples, and causeways. They have not the same inducement to become good cultivators as Kunbis and others who entirely depend on the outturn of their fields. Many Marathas and some few Kunbis are proprietors with tenants, under them, but the bulk are small landholders, many of them also working as field labourers. Nearly all are forced in some way or other to add to the supplies of food drawn from their fields.

Bad Seasons.

The oldest scarcity of which local memory remains was the famine of 1803. The distress caused by want of rain and failure of crops was increased by the influx of starving people from the Deccan. Great numbers are said to have died and children are said to have been sold for food. The price of husked rice rose to about 3½ pounds the rupee (Rs. 400 a khandi), and of cleaned rice to two pounds the rupee (Re. 1 a sher). But a great fall in prices followed the timely import of Bengal rice into Bombay. To relieve the distress, entire remissions of rent, during periods varying from eight months to two years, were granted, and private doles of food were distributed, state granaries were opened, the export of rice forbidden, and payments made for burning or burying the dead. [Colonel Etheridge's Famines, 117.]

In 1817-18 there was a great scarcity of food approaching to a famine. Rich natives distributed food, and remissions to the extent of from one-sixth to one-tenth were granted. As the scarcity was not attended with loss of life and lasted only a year, no Government relief measures were resorted to. [Colonel Etheridge's Famines, 117.] In 1848 in the old Sankshi division, part of the salt rice crop was damaged by unusually high spring tides. Remissions were granted to the amount of £3775 (Rs. 37,750). [Rev. Rec. 34 of 1851, 246.] In 1852 continual heavy rain front the 7th to the 12th of December damaged grain and other produce stacked in the fields. [Rev. Rec. 19 of 1857, 3088.] In 1854 an exceedingly good harvest was the outcome of a most favourable rainfall. But, on the first of November, a terrible hurricane completely destroyed every sort of field produce whether standing or stacked. In the garden lands of Underi and Revdanda the cocoannt and betelnut plantations suffered very severely. Many trees were either blown down, or were so much injured as to be made valueless. Many water-courses were damaged, and the distress among the people was such that remissions of more than £1200 (Rs. 12,000) were granted. In the following year (1855) the rainfall was scanty all over the district, and more than £1000 (Rs. 10,000) of revenue had to be remitted. [Rev. Rec. 16 of 1859 (Part III,), 1100-1103,]

In 1871 there was a serious drought particularly in Mahad and Mangaon, the rainfall in Alibag being only forty inches. Private subscriptions were raised in the district and Government gave money advances to poor husbandmen. In July 1875-76 floods on the banks of the Savitri did much damage in Mahad, and, early in October, in Roha, Mangaon, and Mahad. In July 1876-77 floods did damage in Mahad, and in September and October want of rain destroyed about half the upland crops in Mahad and injured those in Mangaon. In 1878-79 the cold weather crops were much damaged by locusts. As a rule the rainfall is sufficient, sometimes excessive. When the rice crop fails some cold-weather crop can be grown in many places.