called a noviskaun, by which they agree for a certain quantity of land, for five years, to be cultivated with indigo plant, and for which they are to be paid at the rate of six rupees per biggah, for every full field of plant measured by a luggie or measuring-rod.  The luggie, it must be observed, varies in size throughout the district.  In the southern and eastern divisions of Tirhoot and Sarun it is eight-and-a-half to ten feet long; and in the northern and western from twelve to fourteen feet.  The Assamee receives, on the day of making his bundobust, or settlement, three rupees advance on each biggah he contracts for, another rupee per biggah when the crop is fit to weed, and the remaining two rupees at the ensuing settlement of accounts.  Exclusive of the price of his maul or plant, the Assamee is entitled to receive two or three rupees per biggah (as may be agreed on) for gurkee, or lands that have failed, as a remuneration for his trouble, and to enable him to pay his rent.  The foregoing are the principal stipulations of the noviskaun, but the Assamee further engages to give you such land as you may select, prepare it according to instructions from the factory, sow and weed as often as he is required, cut the plant and load the hackeries at his own cost, and in every other respect conform to the orders of the planter or his aumlah (managing man).  The Assamee is not charged for seed, the cartage of his plants, or for the cost of drilling.  I should mention that a penalty is attached to the non-fulfilment of the Assamees engagements, commonly called hurjah, viz., twelve rupees for every biggah short of his agreement, and this for every year that the noviskaun has to run.  This is, however, seldom recoverable, for if you sue the Assamee in court and obtain a decree (a most expensive and dilatory process), he can in most instances easily evade it by a fictitious transfer of his property to other hands.

The planter generally finds it his interest to get the Zemindar of the village in which he proposes cultivating, to join in the noviskaun, as a further security; or he engages with a jytedar, or head Assamee, having several others subordinate to him, and for whose conduct he is responsible.  But a still better system is lately gaining ground in this district, I mean that of taking villages in ticka, or farm, by far the best and cheapest plan that has ever been resorted to for the cultivation of indigo.

When the planter cultivates the ground himself, it is called in Tirhoot Zerant cultivation. Zerants, or Neiz, are taken on a pottah or lease for five years, at the average rent of three rupees per biggah.  The heavy cost attending this cultivation has occasioned its decrease in most factories in Tirhoot and particularly since the fall in prices.  About a third, I believe, was the proportion it formerly bore to the whole cultivation of the district, but of late