( 13 )
Station.
Hugli
Howrah
Midnapur
Chittagong ...
Tipperah
Hazaribagh
Lohardaga
Manbhum
Singbhum ...
.
Balasore
Cuttack
...
Puri
Bakirganj
...
Dacca
Faridpur
Mymansing
Sylhet
Jessore
Nuddea
24-Pergunnahs
Gya
Champaran ...
Patna
Sarun
Shahabad
...
Tirhut
Bogra
Dinajpur
...
Maldah
Moorshedabad
Pubna
Rajshahi
Rangpur
Course rice.
184
17
26
22
45
20
32
32
85
3a
32
25
2l
25
21
25
50
17
30
161
27
24
21
19½
22
32
30
30
35
22
24
32
25
13
l2
15
20
a3|
124
16
18
16
16
114
104
18
15
14
19
19
12 11/10
13 5/16
12|
l1½
10
13
13
12½
9
20
17
17
14
17
20
23
Pulses.
21
19½
26
21
40
21
20
25
24
20
30
13¼
26
12
25 9/16
30
60
32
32
22 |
19
24
32
2l
24
30
15 9/16
21½
?
34
32
35 5/8
?
Wheat.
18
13 |
l2
21
20
16
16
16
16
15
12½
10
21
8
25 1/16
20
20
2l
2¼
18|
9
8*
la
10¼
9*
13
14 3/16
18
?
17
21
29 1/11
?
13¼
16
?
14
20
20
24
14
20
16
26
124
12
13
16
16
20
20
16
14 9/16
28
28
16
22
22
28
15
12
32
17
194
164
12
11
10
?
12
Ht
8
9
9
8
11
n
74
10
10
16
10
10
11¼
la
11 2/16
10
n
124 12
12½
10
15
16
13
11
17½
10 2/3
H
Flour (wheat).
9
94
?
10
12
16
16
9
16
12
18
1«
7½
9
?
10
11
10
10 5/8
8 5/8
2a
17
13
17½
18
18
8
6
16
12
9|
19
8
7¼
6½
8½
6
7
6½
6 9/8
6
8
6
6k
64
7
?
8
β*
8
8
8¼
84
6
10
94
94
8¼
8
9
8
84
8
8
7*
The figures show that scarcity of food and high prices were general all
over the province, although the severity of distress varied in the different
districts.
In Balsore and that part of the country the distress was less severe ; yet
the whole division was sorely afflicted by famine, more especially during the
latter half of the year, and the mortality from cholera, although not registered,
was known to be severe in some parts. In the Manbhum and Singbhum
districts of the Chota Nagpur Division the famine also pressed very severely,
and the mortality in them from starvation and other diseases, including cholera,
was not far short of what occurred in Orissa, yet the only indications of the
presence of the disease in this division, which are afforded by the jail returns,
are a single admission and no death in the Hazaribagh jail, and an outbreak
with 15 admissions and 7 deaths in the Ranchi Jail, in the Lohardugga district.
In the the south-east part of the Manbhum district rice was selling
at 3½to 4½ sers the rupee at the end of August, the average price for the
district being 32 sers the rupee in July of the preceding year. " And early
in September it was recorded, as the opinion of the Relief Committee, that
about Barra Bazaar one-fourth of the population was dead, and another fourth
dying." In the Singbhum district the famine was severest in its north-east
part. The drought had been worst in the "Dhalbhum sub-division, and here
the price of rice rose in September to 16 or 20 sers the rupee, which was far
above its price in the rest of the district.
In the Midnapur district the eastern and southern parts suffered severely
from the great irruption of the sea caused by the cyclone of October 1864,
and in the western part, or Jungle Mehal, the rice crop of 1865 was a failure,
as also were the cold-weather cereal crops of 1865-66. The hot-weather rains
of 1865 broke unusually early, and no fall of any consequence occurred later
than the 15th September. This autumn drought, succeeding the inundations
of the preceding year, pressed the poorer classes to extremity for food, especially
in the Hidgli sub-division:, where the price of rice, which in October ranged
from 12 to 16 sers the rupees, was quite beyond their means. The only
indication afforded by the Midnapur jail returns of the presence of cholera
in this district is in two admissions and no death from that disease.