Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-07-15

cation has hitherto been only very spar
ingly employed. and that in most prim-
tive way. mo provision exists against
damage to the crops caused by want of
rain,'' Mr. Hunter affirmed, only few
wears ago. Tanks are made to receive
The periodical rains, some so large as even
to cover twenty square acres, but they are
for domestic, not agricultural purposes.
The rivers of Orissa carry away the waters
unused to the sea- Every custom in Ben
gal agriculture is of the toughest and
most primitive description, There you
NAV see the bullocks "treading out the
corn the people grinding at the mill as
in the days of Bible history; and in rice
culture. there have been no improve
ments within the memory of man." says
the author before quoted.
No new varieties have been introduced,
either for drier lands or deeper marshes;
whereas we know that the cultivation of
opium is increasing annually, and now
adds about f15,0O0,000 II year to our rev.
enue. Local descriptions of the principal
rice-growing districts let us into the Sc
cret of the oft-ftiling crops. Those in
Orissa are close to tumultuous rivers.
which overflow during the rainy season
from torrents above, during the monsoon,
from the waters beiug driven inland, or
in times of drought are dried up altogeth-
en- Scarcely a year passes without in
undations.
Out of thirty-two years ending In 1866
(the year of the famine), twenty-four
were those of floods and devastation. Out
of fifteen years of floods in Orissa, the
only one of drought was followed by that
of famine To see many square miles OF
solid land turned into Il sea, nine feet deep,
for thirty days, is so much matter OF
course. that most of houses have boats
tied to them in readiness to escape. In
the lower parts of Bengal, many acres of
land are annually devastated by floods.
Yet. dire rs are the floods, drought is Il
still greater enemy. After transplantlng
the roots, water alone will save them. If
the rains be q little postponed, and do not
come at the required moment, the fine
sandy loan is baked to brick, and the
Young crops are burned past hope of re-
covery. If, on the contrary. rain fall a
| few inches too much, the whole country
! is swamped, and exposed, perhaps, to salt
water inundations equally fatal. In 1866,
six thousand nine hundred acres were
devastated by floods, and only one of the
November crops was reaped. To engl-
neering. then, is left the work of arresting
! famines.
Miles and miles of acres in various
provinces, now bringing only disappoint-
ment and suffering to the inhabitants, can
be made productive ut a cost small IN
comparison with the millions of gold and
millions of souls now sacrificed to ignor-
ancc and prejudice. ''One finished canal
is better than all the costly efforts after
wards Irrigation, embankments, drain
age, and improved facilities for transport,
are to be the saving of India. Each new
canal that is opened is u fresh barrier to
the inroads of famine; and among all the
engineering triumphs of this nineteenth
century, none shall be greater than those
now set on foot in India and which will
enable England to say: There shall be
no more Bengal rice-famines.
The late census of Bengal has revealed
to us more than we ever knew before Ol
its teeming population. its infnity ol
castles, and traditional " customs, which
render the people among the most difficult
to deal with. 1t is only through such
great national struggles for life rs famines
and wars, that the intricacies of their
faith can be assailed. A Hindu woman
of high caste, be she ever so poor, will
hide herself and perish rather than dis
grace herself by labor. Life is of little
value TO them, but to labor is terrible. If
while the Hindu children are seated
around their gigantic pile of rice, and
cramming it into their mouths, the shad-
dow of a white man passing fall upon the
dish, the whole is "defiled' > aud thrown
away. When. therefore, we read that ST
many thousands are applying to :" relief
works" here and there, we know what
intercourse has already done to overcome
traditional preiudices; and further inter
course alone, togetherwith agricultural i'm
provements Though even these are g sac
rilegious = to many, can effect the desired
revolution. Chambers Journal.