HUSBANDMEN.

AGRICULTURE supports 435,633 or 54.44 per cent of the total population.

Kunbis form the bulk of Kolhapur husbandmen. Besides Kunbis Jains, Lingayats, Marathas, Brahmans, Musalmans, Berads, Bhandaris, Hanbars, Dhangars, Kolis, Mhars, and the artisan classes are cultivators. Of these Kunbis are found all over the State; Jains and Lingayats mostly in the east, in Alta, Ichalkaranji, Katkol, Raybag, and Shirol; Berads and Hanbars mostly in Gadinglaj; and Bhandaris in a few villages below and along the Sahyadris. The other castes are found distributed throughout the State. Kunbis are sober and industrious but are too conservative. Though not thriftless, they are lavish in their expenditure on marriages and other social rites. They understand the benefit of keeping their fields free from weeds and use manure; but Jains and Lingayats are better farmers in many respects. These are good gardeners, and raise most of the garden crops of the State especially the sugarcane crop which requires both skill and capital. There is more spirit of self-reliance in the Jain community. This particular trait in their character was well shown in the famine of 1876-77 when scarcely a Jain sought State relief. Finding cultivation impossible they sought a livelihood by importing grain and thus succeeded in supporting themselves and their plough cattle." They are somewhat obstinate and quarrelsome. Though ordinarily thrifty, they spend lavishly on marriage and other great rites. The Lingayats are as good farmers as the Jains. They are enduring and thrifty. Brahmans and well-to-do Marathas are not pure cultivators. They hold land both as proprietors and tenants, but either employ labourers or sublet their land for a fixed share of the produce. They are not good farmers. Musalmans are less hardworking and more reckless than Kunbis and are often given to drink. Berads, Bhandaris, Hanbars, Dhangars, Kolis, and Mhars form the poorest class of cultivators. Though on the whole sober, they are slovenly slothful and negligent farmers. The artisan classes having other pursuits keep no stock and reap a poor return from cultivation.

Brahman, Jain, Lingayat, and well-to-do Maratha husbandmen live, in well built houses raised on stone plinths. The houses, which are roomy and well-furnished, are built of bricks or uncoursed rubble with tiled or flat roofs and cost £50 to £500 (Rs. 500 - 5000). The houses of middle-class husbandmen, chiefly of Kunbis, are generally near the Sahyadris, built with mud and gravel walls covered with thatched roofs. The rafters are generally bamboos and the roof is supported on posts and beams of rough untrimmed timber. The houses in the plain country are somewhat better and ordinarily cover a space of thirty-five feet by sixty. The value of a middle-class house varies from £7 (Rs. 70) in the hilly west to £10 (Rs. 100) in the open east. A few brass and copper cooking vessels and most of the minor field tools and some household gear are all that are seen in these classes of houses. Poor husbandmen Dhangars, Berads, Kolis, Bhandaris, Mhars, and Musalmans live in small shapeless thatched huts, in which little else than a handmill, a brass, and a few earthen pots can be seen.

The husbandmen as a class are superstitious. No important act of husbandry such as sowing, reaping, harvesting, and pressing sugarcane is undertaken except at the lucky hour fixed by the village astrologer. Ploughing on Monday is scrupulously avoided. The day is sacred to Mahadev whose favourite riding animal is the bull or Nandi. The women do not help in the field except at harvest, but manage all household affairs. They also spin cotton and visit the neighbouring market to dispose of the yam and the surplus produce of the dairy, and to buy condiments and articles of domestic use with their earnings. The poorest gather headloads of grass and cotton stalks for sale in the markets or halting places. The bulk of the farmers are small peasant proprietors. Since the opening of the Sahyadris and the construction of other main roads the number of carts has greatly increased much to the benefit of husbandmen in the plain country, who cart their produce as far as the coast to secure a better price. The Dhangars always add to their earning by weaving coarse blankets and selling wool and the surplus stock of their folds. Musalmans and Mhars keep fowls. Both fowls and eggs find a ready sale in towns. The poorer husbandmen work also as field labourers chiefly in weeding and harvesting. Kunbis freely move with their families at harvest time in search of work. It is estimated that perhaps ten per cent of the husbandmen are free from debt. The causes of debt are chiefly a series oil indifferent seasons since 3866 and undue expenditure on marriages Jains who are somewhat litigious often incur debt through law suits Marathas owe their indebtedness to extravagant living and thrift-lessness. Especially in the west the husbandmen are generally compelled to borrow grain from the bankers for their support in the rainy season. Such advances are repaid in the harvest season with an addition of twenty-five per cent or savai as interest. The yearly rate of interest which a husbandman pays varies from twelve to thirty-six per cent. During the 1876-77 famine the country near the Sahyadris and the eastern sub-divisions of Shirol, Raybag, and Katkol suffered most. Every form of property, even the family gods and door frames were sold. It will require a series of good years with moderately high prices to enable them to regain their former condition. But on the whole a marked change for the better is noticeable in the condition of the husbandmen as compared with that of thirty years ago. The population has increased more than thirty per cent and the land under tillage has almost reached its maximum. The farm stock has increased immensely, and except in the hilly subdivisions grass huts have everywhere given way to buildings with tiled or flat terraced roofs.

SEASONS.

In dry-crop or jirayat land the seasons are the kharif or early or rain harvest and. the rabi or late or cold weather harvest. [Besides these two main divisions Kolhapur husbandmen divide their year into twenty-seven parts each corresponding with one of the lunar asterisms or nakshatras. The rainfall in one of these periods is called after its corresponding nakshatra; thus the early rain about the middle of June is called the mrig rain or mrigacha paus. The average length of each of these periods is about 13½ days. In 1882-83, Ashvini, the first nakshatra began on 11th April 1882 and Revati, the last on the 29th March 1883. The following is the order of the twenty-seven nakshatras or lunar asterisms: Ashvini, Bharni, Krittika, Rohini, Mrig, A'rdra, Punarvasu, Pushya, A'sheaha, Magha, Purva, Uttara, Hast, Chitra, Svati, Vishakha, Anuradha, Jyeshtha, Mul, Purvashadha, Uttarashadha, Shravan, Dhanishtha, Shatataraka, Purvabhadrapanda, Uttarabhadrapada, and Revati. According to these divisions of the year, all their field operations, ploughing, sowing, weeding, and harvesting for different crops are regulated.] The early harvest is the more important. The time of sowing depends on the breaking of the south-west monsoon which generally takes place between the fifth and the twentieth June. The chief early crops are of the cereals bajri, barag, harik, jondhla, kang, nachni, rala, rice, sava, and vari; of the pulses chavli, kulith, math, mug, tur, and udid; of the oilseeds ambadi, bhuimug, erandi, korte, and til; and of fibres hemp. Of these udid, chavli, vari, and rala ripen by the end of August, rice and nachni by the end of September, and the rest by the end of November. The chief late crops are wheat, late Indian millet, cotton, maize, gram, peas, coriander seed, safflower, mustard seed, linseed, and tobacco.

SOIL.

The soil may be classed kali or black, tambad or red, mali or malva the orchard and rice land, and khari or pandhar or white, or again as good, middling, and poor. About one-third of the arable area is good soil yielding garden crops or two crops in the year; about a fourth is middling soil including patches near villages; and about five-twelfths especially in the hilly west are poor soils bearing coarse grains and requiring long fallows. The black and red soils are the most valuable. Their productiveness depends much on situation. The best black soil is found near the rivers and stretches to an average depth of five feet throughout the bottom of the valleys. Frequent wide seams of lime, however, pervade the black mass and kankar or lime nodules are spread for miles over the surface especially in the sub-divisions of Karvir Panhala and Shirol. A superior kind of red soil is met with on the sides or slopes of the hills near the Sahyadris which are of a ferruginous character for the most part. A stiff light coloured soil which is composed of decayed clay-slate is found on the hill sides and in the smaller valleys particularly in the sub-divisions of Panhala and Bhudargad and the dependencies of Vishalgad and Bavda. It is very retentive of moisture and chiefly valued for rice tillage. From the very best black and red soils two or three crops can be yearly raised. In the hilly west the land is bare fallowed from one to ten years; in other parts of the State all the better soils are under tillage Extensive tracts of waste land are only to be found in the western hills where the climate is unhealthy and the soil shallow and poor.

ARABLE LAND.

Of an area of 2493 square miles 1584 square miles or 1,013,760 acres or 63.5 per cent have been surveyed in detail. Of the total area 681 square miles belong to 356 alienated villages. Of the remainder 973,937 acres or eighty-three per cent are arable land; 30,925 acres or 2.6 per cent unarable; 53,466 acres or 4.6 per cent grass or Kuran and forest [Forest reserves are being formed and it is likely that the area under forest will be increased.]; and 101,585 or 8.7 per cent village sites, roads, river-beds, and hills. In 1881 of the 973,937 acres of arable land in State villages, of which 236,057 acres or 24.28 per cent are alienated, 559,736 acres or 7585 per cent were occupied. Of these 490,638 acres or 87.7 per cent were under dry-crop, 53,808 acres or 9.6 per cent were under rice, and 15,290 acres or 2.7 per cent were under irrigated garden land.

HOLDINGS.

In 1881-82, including alienated lands the total number of holdings was 75,345. Of these 35,362 were holdings of not more than five acres; 16,787 were of six to ten acres; 12,778 of eleven to twenty acres; 7800 of twenty-one to fifty acres; 2145 of fifty-one to a hundred acres; 370 of 101 to 200 acres; eighty-three of 201 to 500 acres; thirteen of 501 to 1000 acres; five of 1001 to 2000 acres; and two of more than 2000 acres. The largest holdings are in the Shirol sub-division.

STOCK.

According to the returns of 1881 the farm stock included 37,921 ploughs, 8592 carts, 149,762 bullocks, 112,735 cows, 61,130 he buffaloes and 74,043 she-buffaloes, 5583 horses including mares and foals, 876 asses, and 144,477 sheep and goats.

A PLOUGH OF LAND.

One pair of oxen can till about twenty acres of blacksoil land, ten acres of mali or orchard land, or one acre of garden land. From ten to twenty acres of dry-crop land and either three acres of garden land or five acres of rice land would enable a husbandman to live like an ordinary retail dealer. Ten to twenty acres of dry crop land will in ordinary seasons support a family consisting of a man, his wife, two children, and a farm servant.

CROPS.

      In 1881-82 the area under tillage was distributed as follows:

 

2. PULSES, seven per cent,
namely,	Acres.
Tur	22,078
Gram	17,738
Peas	4470
Udid	3308
Kulith	2539
Mug	2294
Masur	1513
Pavta	1049
Math	696
Chavli	232
Total	55,917

 

To the above must be added 1504 acres or only 2 per cent under grass and fallows.

FIELD TOOLS.

In the plain country of Kolhapur the field tools are the plough or nangar, the large and small harrows or kulav, the bullock hoe or kolpa, the four seed-drills, the seed-drill for sowing rice and other early hill crops, th0 chanpan for sowing early jvari and other early crops, the hadgi for late jvari and other late crops and the tipan for cotton, the crowbar or sabbal, the sickle or vila, the hand-weeder or khurpe, the hatchet or dhdkti kurhad, the axe or thorli kurhdd, the pickaxe or kudal, the rake or khore, the leather-bag with its gear or mot, the sugar-mill or ghana, the sieve or chalan, the winnowing basket or topli, the cart, and the wooden mallets for crushing clods. Of these the chief are the plough, the harrow, the bullock hoe, the seed-drill, the sugarcane-mill, the leather-bag with its gear, and the cart.

Plough.

The plough or nangar is a thick babhul or Acacia arabica log with its lower end called isad sharp and curving at an obtuse angle from the main block. The share or phal, which weighs about fourteen pounds and goes seven to nine inches deep, is a flat iron bar about two feet long and somewhat pointed at the end which cuts the soil. It is let into a socket called mutirna and fixed to the wooden point by a movable iron ring or vidi. The plough costs about 10s. (Rs. 5) and is drawn by eight bullocks and managed by two men. One man holds the plough, and the other, sitting in the middle of the yoke of the third pair, drives the leaders. The share lasts about ten to twelve years and the ropes six months.

Harrow.

The harrow or kulav, which costs about 5s. (Rs. 2½), loosens the soil before sowing, covers the sown seed, breaks clods, and uproots shrubs and weeds. In the east where lands are ploughed only after long intervals, every year to prepare the soil for sowing, the harrow, which turns up the soil about two inches, is worked three to four times. The harrow consists of two coulters joined by a level cross iron blade or phas set obliquely in a wooden beam called dinda about four feet long. A pole unites it to the yoke and it is guided by an upright handle. To add weight to it generally two boys sit on the beam on either side of the handle and are ready to pick away any stone or stubble that may impede the harrow. Except in size the small harrow is exactly like the large and is used for clearing the land between the rows of a sugarcane crop. When the soil is very stiff a heavy harrow drawn by eight bullocks is used. This implement is also required to dig up earthnuts.

Bullock Hoe.

The bullock hoe or kolpa costing from 2s. to 3s. (Rs. 1 -1½) has three blocks each with two hoes and is drawn by two to four bullocks. As the bullock hoe is worked, each hoe of the block passes on either side of the row taking the young crop between the hoes in the opening.

Seed Drill.

The seed-drill consists of three to six iron-shod coulters set in a block of wood and fed with seed through bamboo tubes from a wooden bowl into which the seed is dropped by hand. When mixed grains are to be sown in one of the drills, the driver plugs the cup hole for that drill and the seed is sown by a man who walks behind, through a hollow bamboo called mogna, which is attached by a rope to the drill. The seed-drill is used in sowing rice and early hill crops and has generally six iron-shod coulters. The chanpan has three coulters and is used for sowing early jvari and other early crops. The hadgi is much heavier than the chanpan and has four coulters, and is used in sowing late jvari, peas, gram, and other late crops. It is drawn by eight bullocks. The cotton seed-drill or tipan is made on the same plan as the grain-sowing kurgi. It has only three coulters and no cup with tubes. It is worked by a pair of bullocks. At the back of the beam of the seed-drill are tied by ropes three hollow bamboos or mognas, which are kept in furrows drilled by the iron coulters, by two sowers, who, from a clothful of seed at their waist, drop the seed through them.

Sugarcane Mill.

The sugarcane-mill or ghana is only possessed by well-to-do husbandmen and Gujarat Vanis or traders who let it on hire at 1s. (8 as.) the day. The mill costs about £2 10s. (Rs. 25) and lasts five to six years. It consists of two solid babhul cylinders called navra and navri or husband and wife set close together vertically between two thick wooden boards, the lower of which is cut out, into a shallow trough. The navra is a little longer than the navri and passes through the upper board. The upper parts of both the cylinders are turned into double spiral screws which work in each other. To the upper end of the larger screw is fixed a lever. To work the mill the lever is united to the yoke of bullocks which are driven round the mill. As it is pressed out, the juice drops into the trough-shaped lower wooden board. From the board it passes through an under-ground tube into an earthen vessel called mandan. From the mandan it is taken to the boiling cauldron. Before the wooden mill was brought into use, a stone mill was used which has of late nearly disappeared.

Leather Bag.

The leather-bag or mot with its gear consists of a leather bag, two hemp ropes, the large called nada and the small sonddor, two uprights supporting' six feet above the well a fixed pulley about eighteen inches in diameter and its one foot long axle, and close to the ground a wooden cylinder about 2¹/₆ feet long and six inches in diameter. The cylinder is so fixed in the uprights as to move freely round itself. The leather-bag, which holds about sixty gallons, has two mouths, the upper one wide and laced to an iron or wooden ring, and the lower one tapering into a pipe. To the ring is tied the large rope or nada which passes over the pulley and joins the leather-bag to the bullock yoke. The sonddor, which passes over the cylinder on the edge of the well, is long enough to keep both the mouths of the bag in one level, as it is drawn up the well. As the bag reaches the edge of the well the sonddor ends, and the bag becoming straight empties itself in a cistern in front of the well. Though the bag is generally large enough to hold about sixty gallons nearly ten gallons are spilt into the well as the bag is being drawn up.

Carts.

In Kolhapur husbandmen use three kinds of carts, the gada, the bagi, and the chhakda. The gada or harvest-cart, which is going fastly out of use, is very heavy and can only be drawn by eight bullocks. It is nearly twelve feet long and about three and a half feet broad. The body of the cart consists of two long beams joined together by cross pieces fixed all along their lengths. Each wheel is made of a single solid block or two or three blocks joined together by a massive iron tire. Though clumsy and very heavy, with outriggers on both sides, it is very useful in carrying large quantities of grass and manure. The gada costs £5 to £6 (Rs. 50-60). Of late the gada has given place to the lighter bagi. It has spoked wheels about four feet in diameter with a massive tire. The framework is generally of babhul and the axle is of iron. This cart carries twelve to fourteen hundredweights, is drawn by four bullocks, and costs £4 to £5 (Rs.40 - 50). Except that it is lighter than the bagi, the chhakda does not differ in any way from the bagi. It is used in making trips to the coast or carrying field produce to distant markets, and costs £3 to £4 (Rs. 30 - 40).

The field tools used by the Konkan husbandmen are the plough or nangar, the four harrows, the datka, the dind or gutha, the pate, and the log of wood for turning up the soil before the sowing of rice; picks for digging hill land, the billhook or koyta, the weeding sickle or khurpe, the crowbar or sabbal, the bullock hoe or kolpa, the harrow or kulav, and the seed-drill or kurgi. The plough is light, well suited to small patches of rice land, and is drawn by two bullocks. The datka has wooden teeth and is drawn by a pair of bullocks. The dind or gutha is a log of wood used for breaking clods, and the pate is a flat board used for levelling and smoothing the soil.