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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 17, p. 79.

TKA.DE AND COMMUNIC~1 TIONS 79 and jute 38 square miles. jute is grown for the most part in the north-west of the District, and wheat, barley, and gram in the extreme west. Mangoes, for the excellence and variety of which this District is deservedly famous, are grown chiefly in the English Bāzār thdna. But the profits from the sale of this fruit, as well as the improved facilities for transport, have encouraged landowners to cultivate it in all the thdnas to the west of. the Mahānanda. Every plot of land suitable for the growth of mango grafts is planted with them, and tracts of land formerly growing ordinary rabi or winter crops have in recent years been converted into mango orchards. The mulberry is grown in the central and south-western portion of the District; and its culti- vation gives a curious aspect to this part of the country, as the land has to be artificially raised to the height of 8 or 1o feet, to prevent the plants from being destroyed by the annual floods. Indigo is still grown on the Ganges didras to the west, covering about 1,ooo acres, but the area under this crop has been largely reduced. Cultivation has rapidly extended around the ruins of Gaur and also in the Bārind, where the greater portion of the cultivable area has been cleared of jungles in recent years; and there has also been an extension of cultivation in the swampy tract to the east of Gaur. Manure is used only on mulberry lands, and artificial irrigation is unnecessary except for the spring rice crop. The agricultural classes are on the whole prosperous, and there has hitherto been little demand for advances under the Agriculturists' and Land Improvement Loans Acts. Good cart-bullocks are imported from the Districts to the west, but the local cattle are poor. There are extensive tracts of waste land in the Bārind and elsewhere, but little nourishing pasture land. During the rains the inhabitants of the didras graze their cattle in the higher tracts. An industrial exhibition, at which domestic animals and poultry are shown, was instituted at English Bāzār in 1903. The staple industry of the District is silk. Its production may be classed in three branches : the rearing of the cocoons, the spinning of the raw silk, and the weaving of silk piece-goods. Within the last twenty-five years the cultivation of Trade and communications. mulberry and the production of cocoons has nearly doubled; and the annual output of cocoons is estimated at 1oo,ooo maunds, worth from 25 to 30 lakhs, of which about 6o,ooo maunds are exported. The annual export of silk thread is estimated at 1,650 to 1,700 maunds, and its value at 1o or i 1 lakhs. The industry is said to date back to the Hindu kingdom of Gaur ; and the cloth known as Māldahi was for a long time a speciality of external com- merce, but its manufacture is now very limited, and a few pieces only are occasionally woven to meet the demands of a Bombay firm. The export of ordinary silk piece-goods has also decreased, and it is