A History of Assam c23.49

c23.49

for *basti*, ten annas for *rupit*, and eight annas for *faringati*. Between the years 1883 and 1893 a cadastral, or field to field, survey, on a scale of 16 inches to the mile, was made of the whole area, except tracts where cultivation was sparse, which were afterwards surveyed by non-professional agency. The assessment was then revised; each class of land was divided into three sub-classes and new rates were imposed, ranging from Re. 1-6-0 to Re. 1-2-0 per *bigha* for *basti*, from one rupee to twelve annas for *rupit*, and from twelve annas to nine annas for *faringati*. The main consideration taken into account was the demand for land in a village, as indicated by the density of population and the proportion of settled to total area. All land of the same description in a village was placed in the same class. Experience showed that this method of assessment resulted in a very uneven distribution of the revenue demand. Between the years 1905 and 1912 a new settlement for a period of twenty years was effected. The main divisions of *basti*, *rupit* and *faringati* were sub-divided into classes recognized by the cultivators, and the relative productiveness of each class was expressed by a numerical factor: this figure was taken to represent the number of "soil-units" in each *bigha* of the particular class of land, so that when the area of any class was multiplied by its factor, the product was the number of soil-units in that area. At this settlement the average assessment per *bigha* of permanent cultivation varied from 11.5 annas in Nowgong to 14.7 annas in Lakhimpur.