Soil.

IN 1872 agriculture, the most important industry of the district, was returned as supporting- about 246,400 persons or 70.32 per cent of the population. [According to information furnished by Mr. J. A. Baines, Deputy Superintendent of Census (17th April 1882), the percentage of the agricultural population at the time of the 1881 census was the same as in 1872.]

There are four chief varieties of soil: ailuvial and alluvia, powdered laterite and trap, clayey mould resting on trap, and soil containing marine deposits with, much sand and other matter in concretion. Of these the first, which is composed of various disintegrated rocks of the overlying trap formation, with a varying proportion of calcareous substances, is at once the richest and the most widespread. It is red, yellow or black in colour, crumbly, and, from the drainnge of hill streams, free from salt Of the three colours. all are equally productive, but the black is most suited for growing-rice. Its richness is due chiefly to its lime nodules or kankar, and to the vegetable matter in valleys and near river banks. The second soil, powdered laterite and clay, which covers the sides and slopes of hills, is next in point of excent. Though filted for the growth of such hill crops as nachni, vari, harik, udid, and til, this soil, owing to its shallowness, soon becomes exhausted, and, after bearing for three years, has to be allowed a three years fallow. The third soil, clayey mould resting on trap, is found near the banks of the Nagothna, Roha, and Mandad creeks, and in the strip of land that stretches from Dasgaon ten miles west along the sides of the Savitri river. In the strip of land that runs by the side of the Nagothna creek, about eighteen miles long and from half a mile to three miles broad, the soil is mixed with chalky tubes locally called ladh. Some detached flats of this soil along the Roha and Mandad creeks arc cultivated with inferior rice. Where the supply of fresh water is scanty the yield is small, but, where the supply of fresh water is plentiful, the yield equals that of uthlapat or sweet rice land. The third sort is mostly very dark brown, and, when dry, is extremely hard. In places where it is or was liable to be flooded from creeks and backwaters it is called kharepat or salt land. Below this soil is a stratum of mud, in many places half liquid. The fourth soil, containing marine deposits and sand, lies along the sea-coast and is favourable to garden crops, which are helped by the abundant supply of water contained in a belt of concrete and lime. [Bom. (Gov, Sel. (New.Series), VII. 3,]

Arable Area.

According to the survey returns the district contains 957,697 acres, of which 83,161 acres or 8.68 per cent are alienated, paying only a quit-rent to Government. Of the 874,536 acres of Government land 478,953 or 54.76 per cent are arable, 124,000 or 14.17 per cent forest, 13,611 or 1.55 per cent salt marsh and salt pans, 81,492 or 9.31 per cent unassessed hill and upland, and 174,186 or 20.18 percent roads and village sites. Of 478,963 acres, the total Government arable area, which is assessed at £69,989 (Rs. 6,99,890), 472,313 acres or 98.61 percent were in 1879-80 held for tillage. Of- this, 3242 or 0.68 per cent were garden land, with an average acre rate of 11.s.³/8d. (Rs. 5-3-8), 140,344 acres or 20.71 percent were rice land, with an average acre rate of 8s. 9½d. (Rs. 4-6-4), and 328,727 acres or 69.59 per cent were dry crop land with an average acre rate of 4¾d. (3 annas 2pies).

Salt Lands.

Especially in the northern sub-divisions of Alibag and Pen, the most interesting  feature in the tillage of the district is the large area of salt marsh and mangrove swamp that has been reclaimed for the growth of rice. These tracts, lying along the banks of tidal creeks, are locally known as kharepat or salt land. Most of the embankments or sguktrus,, which save the land from tidal flooding, are said to have been built between 1755 and 1780, partly by the Angrias and partly by men of position and capital, who, with the title of shilutridars, or dam keepers, undertook, on the grant of special terms, to make the embankments and keep them in repair. For many years these reclamations were divided into rice fields and salt pans. The salt pans were gradually closed between 1858 and 1872; and, about two-thirds of the area formerly given to the making of salt has been brought under tillage. Each reclamation has two banks, an outer bank or baherkantha, and an inner bank or antkantha. In the outer bank are sluice gates which are kept closed from October to June, and, as soon as the rains have set in, are opened to allow the rain water to escape. On the Theronda creek, about a mile to the north of Revdamla on the road to Alibag to strengthen the outer bank a boat has been sunk in the creek, and, on the boat, a second bank of stone and earth has been raised and strengthened with trees from twenty-five to thirty feet long laid horizontally. The shrub of most use in these embankments is the mangrove, which has proved a valuable foundation tor woohen piers, keeping the piles from sinking into the sand. A special shovel, called a pensan, made either entirely of wood or with an iron head and wooden handle, is used in making and repairing the banks. [The pensan and not the plough is the sign mark of Agris who are unable to write.]

Salt land on the edge of the sea is harder to reclaim than land lying on the bank of a creek, and it is also more likely to suffer from local changes. The Sakhar creek between Alibag and Akshi has of late increased at the expense of the garden land on it's banks, and, at Kharmilkhat, about a mile to the north-west of the Revas creek, fifteen or twenty acres have lately been washed away.

Two years after the embankment is complete, rice is sown in the reclaimed land, in order that the decayed straw may offer a resting place and supply nourishment to grass seeds. As soon as the banking is completed the reclaimers sublet the land in plots, but five years generally pass before any crop is raised.

In Nagothna, most of the land suitable for reclaiming, was, about a hundred years ago, made over to and brought under tillage by shilotridars or dam keepers. [These shilotridars hold a similar position to the khots of the three southern subdivisions, and are superior to them in being in no way restricted in the rents they levy from their tenants. Some of them hold under grants given by Angria's government.] In Pen, much of the more easily reclaimed land was brought under tillage in 1857. In other parts of the district the work goes on steadily, and many applications have lately been refused because the plots asked for have been included in the area set apart for forests. The chief areas at present under reclamation are, at Dadar on the Amba river, a stretch of about 500 acres, 300 of which were granted in 1863 to a Musalman free of assessment for fifteen years, and 200 were in 1877 granted to several Agris free of assessment for thirteen years. About seventy acres have been taken for reclamation at Shirki on the east or right bank of the Amba, and at Odhangi about five miles east of Shirki 100 acres have been taken at Navkhar near the lievas pier; and 200 at Mankul near Revas. The old salt pans at Shahibag and Kiragar near Dharamtar are also being turned into rice ground.

In fixing the terms of the reclamation leases, the cost of saving the land and the time that will pass before there is any return, are taken into consideration. As a rule a small acre charge of from 3d. to 4½d. (2-3 as.) is levied from the beginning. No sum is kept in deposit. At the end of the lease, if the land has not been reclaimed, Government is at liberty to take it back; if the reclamation is completed the land is subject to full assessment.

Irrigation.

In 1880-81, of 4661 wells, 3468 were returned as used for drinking and washing, and 1193 for watering. Of the 1193 wells used for watering, 1187 were in Alibag and six in Pen. The only part of Kolaba where there is much irrigation, is, along the west coast of Alibag, in a belt known as the Ashtagar or eight plantations. This tract includes the lands or eleven villages, all of them with large areas of watered closely-planted cocoa-palm gardens and orchards. The wells, whose brackish water is specially suited to the growth of cocoa palms, are fitted with Persian wheels or rhats, which are worked by bullocks, and, in rare cases, by men. When worked by a bullock the animal is blindfolded so as to leave the driver time to look after the trees and change the course of the water. The water jars, which are tied in a belt round a large wheel, come up full of water, and empty themselves into a channel that runs along the top of a wall. Every two yards, in the side of the channel, are openings of the same width as the channel. In these openings clods of earth are placed, and, by turning the clods until they are at right angles with the opening, the stream of water is dammed and forced to flow to one side. At the foot of the wall, below each opening, a channel is cut in the earth with branches running to three or four palm trees. As soon as one tree has received its supply of water, the clod of earth, which has kept the water from flowing down the second branch, is placed across the first branch, and the stream is turned to water the second tree. A Persian wheel costs, on an average, about £8 10s. (Rs. 85), and, when in regular work, waters an acre and a half of land. In other parts of the district, where there is a sure supply of water from a river, pond, or well, gardens are occasionally, but not often, found. In Mahad the rainfall is sufficient to raise sugarcane without watering, but in Alibag watered sugarcane can alone be grown. The cost of watering varies greatly in different localities. In lands commanded by a reservoir the expense is small; in lands watered from a river-pool by the bucket and lever-lift worked by a man it is estimated at about £10 (Rs. 100; an acre; and in lands watered from the leather bag at £12 (Rs.120).

A Plough.

In sweet rice lands the size of a 'plough' varies from two to three acres. For cold weather crops, as the land has to be very carefully ploughed, one pair of bullocks can work only two acres. In hill-crop lands, or varkas, where only two cross ploughings are required, a pair of bullocks can till from four to five acres. In salt rice lands near creeks and on hill slopes the plough is not used.

Holdings.

From five to ten acres of good early crop land or from ten to twenty acres of upland is a large holding; from three to four acres of early crop or ten acres of upland is a middling holding; and from one and a half to two acres of early crop or five acres of upland is a small holding. The average size of holdings is five acres in Alibag, 8⅜ acres in Pen, nine in Roha, 9½ in Mangaon, and 10½ in Mahad. [

Size of Holdings.

	Alibag.	Pen.	Roha.	Mangaon.	Mahad.	Total.
Occupied area.	61,023 7/40	72,532⅜	59,128⅜	126,652	180,542 3/5	499,880 1/40
Holdings	12,211	8769	6579	13,335	17,080	57,994
Average area.	5	8⅜	9	9½	10½	8 25/40

] The small average area of Alibag holdings is due to the small area of hill-crop land or varkas, which, in Alibag, is only one-third of the whole, compared with a half in Pen, two-thirds in Roha, three-fourths in Mangaon, and seventeen-twentieths in Mahad. These returns include some private or inam villages, so that the average holdings in Government lands are smaller than appears from the returns. Again, as most of the land is in the hands of the higher castes who sublet it, the average area of rice-land held by the actual cultivators is estimated not to be more than from two to three acres, an area which, it is believed, can hardly support a family without some addition from labour, wages, or other sources.

Aboriginal Tillage.

Hill and forest tribes hold little land direct from Government, and there are no important special arrangements for providing for their wants. Of the Thakurs about five per cent are believed to hold Government land and about ten per cent are supposed to be under-holders. Of the Kathkaris, the other leading forest tribe, very few hold land either from Government, or as under-holders. In 1859, with the object of winning the Dhangars and Thakurs from their wandering life, some large numbers were given them at from 1½d. to 3d (1-2 as.) an acre to graze their cattle on, and, to a limited extent, for tillage. It was intended that all rights in trees should be reserved to Government. But, in several cases, the Dhangars and Thakurs made over their numbers to Musalman and Hindu capitalists by whom large numbers of the trees were felled. Kathkaris and Thakars generally till their land with the hoe. Not seven per cent of them own a plough, though some occasionally borrow a plough from a Kunbi friend and raise a little rice. To prevent hardship, these wild and ignorant people are allowed to till up to half an acre of Government unassessed land free of rent or fine. Not more than a hundred in a year take advantage of this rule.

In 1866-67 fourteen villages, which had formed part of the Khalapur petty division of Thana, were made over to Pen. In two of these fourteen villages, Goteh and Aghai, land has been set apart for grazing, and in Chavni wooded slopes or dalhiran are set apart for the use of Thakurs. In these wooded slopes the patches of tillage are not measured, but the amount of land which can be tilled by one hoe is called dagh and is charged 1s. (8 as.) a year. In 1854 when Goteh and Aghai were surveyed, the upland was not divided into numbers, but tillage was charged at the rate of 4s. (Rs. 2) for each- plough and Is. 6d. (12 as.) for each hoe. In 1874 it was settled that persons holding rice lands assessed at 7s. 6d. (Rs. 3-12) or over, might till uplands free of charge. Holders of rice land, paying less than 7s. 6d. (Rs. 3-12), were arranged in classes, who for hill-crop tillage, were charged a feel, irrespective of the area cultivated, varying from Is. (8 as.) where the holding did not pay less than 6s. (Rs. 3), to 3s. 3d. (Rs. 1-10) where the rent was not more than 3s. (Rs. 1-8). Holders who had no rice land were to continue to pay 4s. (Rs. 2) on each plough and 1s. 6d. (12 as.) on each hoe. These rules are no longer in force. Another rule is that when any person grows rice in grazing lands or in wooded slopes he has to pay rent equal to the assessment on the nearest rice field.

Stock.

According to the 1880-81 returns the farm stock of the district amounted to 30,655 ploughs, 3021 carts, 51,848 bullocks, 40,632 cows, 39,811 buffaloes, 496 horses, 15,574 sheep and goats, and 75 donkeys.

Field Tools

The chief dry-crop field tools are the plough, nagar ; the rake, ala; the basket-dredge, petara; the small pickaxe, kudli; the shovel, pensam; the reaping hook, kharal; the hoe, pavda ; the crowbar, pahar ; and the winnowing fan, sup. The better sort of Kolaba plough is made of teak with carved handles, and the poorer is plain and of bhendi or other less valuable wood. A plough costs from 2s. 6d.. to 3s. (Rs. 1¼ -Rs. 1½), and, on an average, weighs forty-two pounds. The iron share or phal, which weighs from two to two and a half pounds, is fastened to the upper side of the share-beam by a movable iron ring, so that at any time it may be loosed from the beam. The wooden part of the plough is in four pieces, the pole, the yoke, the share beam, and the handle. The share-beam is nailed to a three feet long handle; the pole, which varies in length from 6½ to 7½ feet, is wedged both into-the share-beam and into the handle; and the yoke, which is 5½ feet long, is bound to the pole by ropes. The plough is drawn by one pair of bullocks or buffaloes and is worked by one man. It is chiefly used in sweet rice lands to work and loosen the mud after the first rainfall. The share passes seven or eight inches below the surface at the first ploughing, twelve inches at the second, and from fifteen to eighteen inches at the third. The rake ala is a rude tool costing from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. (10 as.-12 as.). A level pole, from live to six feet long, is wedged into an upright beam from, six to seven feet long and fastened by wooden nails. On the bottom of the beam is a row of close-set wooden teeth. The rake is worked like the plough and is used for loosening mud and clearing the ground of grass. The petara or basket is a sort of dredge or scoop, consisting of a handle or yoke fastened to a plank sometimes cased with iron. From the plank a stout handle rises with a backward slope,, and, to the handle and two other iron uprights, is laced the basket a hollow frame of slit bamboos smeared with a wash of cowdung. The dredge is used for deepening and levelling rice lands. In working the dredge the driver presses, the handle, and the earth which the plank scrapes off is thrown up and gathers in the basket. When the basket is filled with earth the driver empties it by throwing its contents forward or to one side. The cost of a dredge varies from 1s. 3d to 2s. 3d. (10 as. - Re. 1 as. 2). The small pickaxe, kudli, costing from 4½d. to 7½d. (3 as. -5 as.), is chiefly used to break clods in rice fields. The shovel or pensan is used in Mangaon and Mahad. In sweet rice land a piece of iron is fastened to its end; but in salt rice land it merely consists of a hard piece of wood flattened at the end. It is used for turning turf as well as for making and mending banks. Its price is about 3d. (2 as.). The reaping hook, or kharal, is a small sickle notched like a saw; it costs from 9d. to 1s. (6 as. - 8 as.).

Tillage.

Almost all over the district sweet rice lands are manured by laying a layer of cowdung on the ground, covering the cowdung with branches and tree loppings or with grass, and burning the whole. The entire field is scarcely ever manured, and, with the growing difficulty of finding brushwood and branches, partly due to the increased area set apart for forests and partly to the reckless stripping of uplands, there is often no brushwood available except for manuring the seedling nursery. Scanty supplies of cowdung and wood-ash are eked out by paying Dhangars and other shepherds, who, in the cold season, bring their flocks from the Deccan, to pen their sheep in the bare rice fields. Along the coast where there are garden lands, and in all parts of the district where there is irrigation, cowdung, litter, and other sweepings are carefully kept and stored in pits. In palm gardens rotten fish spread round the roots of the trees, is the favourite manure. In uplands, unless brushwood can be gathered for burning, the field, after cropping, is left fallow for three or four years. Over a great part of the district rice alone can be grown so that the land cannot be refreshed by a change of crops.