ORISSA'S ECONOMY IN THE 19TH CENTURY 35
because the virgin jungles demand scarcely anything from the soil. The organic matter fallen from the trees provides its own humus, but jungle clearing brings unpleasant surprises.la The hills yield timber, of various sizes, floated down to Balasore and other ports. The woodlands ofOrissa may be divided into temperate forests situated on the hills and the tropical forests in the plains. The tropical forests consist chiefly of sal trees which were considered inexhaustible. There was also the habit of cutting and clearing large tracts of forest land for toila (temporary) cultivation for a few years on a short-term leasehold basis. When the land was exhausted, and cultivation suspended, it lapsed into thicket and jungle.17 There was also the practice of giving pattahs (permitting sal forests to be girdled) for procuring dammer. At the end of it all, the magnificent trees were destroyed.18
Animal Power
Owing to poor fertility of the soil and the constant conversion of grazing fields into cultivation, the conditions for cattle became precarious. The ignorance, neglect and poverty of the people made matters worse. The cows were of inferior stock. The entire attention of the ryots was concentrated on their plough- and cart-bullocks to the exclusion of all other forms of livestock. Owing to lack of savings and the constant havoc caused by natural calamities, they had to sell even the implements of cultivation as a last resort to meet the inexhaustible demands of the Mahajans and landed proprietors. The once-flourishing trade in livestock between Bengal and Orissa in the nineteenth century^ mainly by the Balasore merchants, tells this tragic tale.l9
According to the Maharaja of Balasore, as noted by Milne, the glazing fields in common land constituted not more than 3 per cent of the total revenue-paying estates. The agricultural conditions were in themselves unfavourable to the production of a strong breed of cattle but these difficulties were aggravated by the fact that no selection for breeding purposes was practised. The low average output of milk can be explained by the fact that tropical grass and other forage plants, even when available in abundance in the rainy season, are frequently lacking in nutritive value; the excessive heat of summer cuts the appetite and subjects the animal to disease. Even at other times adequate animal feed was not easily available. The uplands were dry and arid, little cultivated except for bhadoi (ripening in the month of September) crops, and spring crops were notably rare as animal food.^0 Lack of nutrition diminished the working capacity of the cattle. A pair of ordinary oxen could plough about 16 cottahs (1/3 of an acre) per working day of 5 or 6 hours and could carry a load varying from 7 to 10 maunds. Pack bullocks usually carried a load of 2/3 maunds, although the cross-breeds and Deccan breeds could carry a heavier weight.21 The inadequate growth of animal power, caused by lack of sufficient capital investment and pasture, prevented any development of the means