on high lands, the average per acre of the former, according to
the agricultural bulletin, as ascertained from the results of 817
experimental crop cuttings carried out during the fifteen years
preceding the year 1898, being 11.7 maunds of paddy per acre,
as against an average of 9.4 maunds per acre (resulting from 667
cuttings made during the same period) for the latter. [16] The average
out-turn of both kinds is extremely poor, as compared with that of any
description of rice grown in the plains. The rice grown in the hills
is said by the Agricultural Department to be of inferior quality, the
grain when cleaned being of a red colour, and extremely coarse. The
cultivation of potatoes is practically confined to the Khasi Hills,
there being little or none in the Jaintia Hills. The normal out-turn of
the summer crop sown in February and harvested in June is reported by
the Agricultural Department to be five times the quantity of seed used,
and that of the winter crop, sown in August and September on the land
from which the summer crop has been taken, and harvested in December,
twice the quantity of seed. The winter crop is raised chiefly for
the purpose of obtaining seed for the spring sowings, as it is found
difficult to keep potatoes from the summer crop in good condition till
the following spring. The usual quantity of seed used to the acre at
each sowing is about 9 maunds, so that the gross out-turn of an acre
of land cultivated with potatoes during the year may be taken at 63
maunds, and the net out-turn, after deducting the quantity of seed
used, at 45 maunds. The above estimate of the Agricultural Department
rests chiefly on the statements of the cultivators, and has not been
adequately tested by experiment.

Since the appearance of the potato disease in 1885-86 there has been
a great decrease in the area under potato cultivation. In 1881-82
the exports of potatoes from the district were as high as 126,981