wet land to Rs. 41,000, while in the upland dry land the decrease was Rs. 14,000. The net increase in this tract was thus some Rs. 1,26,000. The water-rate in the delta was raised almost immediately (1865) from Rs. 3 to Rs. 4 per acre, and eventually in 1894 to Rs. 5; and this resulted in a further increase.
This separate water-rate on regularly irrigated wet land was quite exceptional, the method usual in other districts being to charge such land a consolidated wet assessment. It was introduced under the orders of the then Secretary of State, Sir Charles Wood. His idea appears to have been that, though Government was selling the water, it had no concern with the use made of it, and was only required to fix a 'fair commercial value' for it. But to some land the water was worth much more than to others (since fields which grew excellent dry crops did not always do well when irrigated), and in effect the greatest inequalities of assessment grew up among the delta fields.1[1] These considerations led the Government to reclassify the delta land when the present settlement was introduced.
The settlement continued in force for 30 years and in 1896 proposals for its revision were made. The chief factors calling for consideration2[2] were the enormous increase in prices (they had more than doubled in most cases), and the great improvement in means of communication, which had occurred since the last settlement. The anomalies caused by the vater-rate system in the delta also called loudly for removal. In the uplands no reclassification of soils was considered necessary, and the chief change was an all round enhancement of the existing rates by one-third, so that Government might share in the profits resulting from the great increase in prices.
In the delta, however, both wet and dry land soils were reclassified and a consolidated wet assessment was substituted for the existing dry assessment plus water-rate.
In reclassifying these soils three series (alluvial, regar and arenaceous) were adopted, the first containing two classes and each of the two latter three. Each class was subdivided into 'sorts.' The standard crops taken for wet and dry land were white and black paddy respectively. For the former the grain outturns which had been arrived at for the same classes of soils in Tanjore were adopted; they were rather
