Litchfield enquirer., 1877-08-16
indian Famines.

of the Middle Ages to find the dense pop.
 ulations of large districts Threatened with
 actual starvation, and it is difficult fol
 the American to understand the condi.
 tions that could lead to such result in .
 country at peace with all the world, and
 governed by just and intelligent rulers.
 British India is somewhat larger than
 the United States. east of the Mississippi,
 with population of 200 millions swarm
 ing over tropical soil. rich and productive
 in favorable seasons beyond anything of
 which the American farmer can conceive:
 but. says the Review: ga4
 The very conditions which stimulate
 the luxuriance of the heaviest crops, ag-
 gravate the soil of years of misfortune.
 The powerful influence of the rays of the
 sun in stimulating the processes of the or-
 ganic chemistry of the plant is the more
 sensible, the more direct is their incl
 dence. In tropical and sub-tropical re-
 gions, sog active is this creative pow
 or that plants may almost be seen to
 grow; but the greater the solar heat the
 greater is the need of water for the sup
 port of vegetation. the greater also, as
 g general rule, is the supply. . !.
 The ranges of mountains that line the
 western coast of the Indian peninsula. .. are annually Bwatered by more than 100 inches of rain. ; Nor is the quan-
 tity of the water supply its most impor-
 tant feature. It's regularity is periodic. ssr <
 When. from causes which science has not yet grasped. this puuctuality of water supply is interfered with, athe heat which wpHld have isafnalased the growth of the wel.watered plaht7parehes and .withers1 theA Avegetation of an arid s0iE 1e 3 f7 , The density of population in the most productive districts ofIIndia exceeds any thing known in the merely agricultural populations of the temperats zones. The famine of 1866 extended ever an area less than half that of the New England States; yet that part of India has popu- lation of over 16 6millions-more than half the population of the United States in 1860. That 500 people can live on the produce of square mile of land in the best seasons seems little less than mir acle, yet such is the ratio of population throughout large districts in India. It costs the lower gbss of Indians almost nothing to liye,--aittle fueL little cloth- ing indifferent housing and scarcely any food beyond his pound and half of rice day. But if bis, expenses are, infni- tesimal, ,qhis income is, less. than infnitesi- nal. He has no capital, no land. no per- sonal property that he can turn into mon ey in case. of need.l Like the Irish peas ahtry of thirty years since, ahA has, no re sources, and two years failure of the rlce crop means famine in India as surely as two years failure of the potato crop meant famine in Ireland in. the years between 1S4O and 1850. But while Ire- land has seen but one great famine within the present century, India has seen twelve. None of them extend over the whole land-no more than tenth of the whole population of the country being affected at any one time, and generally a much smaller proportion, ,yet the loss of life even in these partial cases is horrible to contemplate. In the famineof 1s32, ,2oO.- 900 people died of starvatlan in the Gun toor district alone, while the total loss of life from that of 1866 is stated to have been 133, ,554 The area affected by the drought of the present year is great CT than has often been known, cov- ering nearly third of the territory of India.to the South and West, with population of 60, GOO, 900. We are glad to hear better news from the suffering dis tricts of late, and the worst is probably over; but the loss of life. must have been very serious, the deaths in six Madras districts being reported at four times the usual average. ca. ...-
 .uLatIone portion of the population of coudtfy no larger than India should be suffering from starvation to the point of deaths while the other portions are enjoy ing their usual prosperity, proves the ex- trems poverty of the population at large more conclusiyely than any other fact we could mention, We cannot imagine, how hundreds and thousands of 'Fennssseans, for instance could die of want while there was abundance of food in the rest of the United Statesu The diff culty is that with a failure of its own crop the population of India has no a6- cumulations of property it can exchange with the people of more fortuuatel dis tricts for food. Their only resource is Government help, and so universal is the Restitution that, of g population of ten millions in the country worst affected by the drought of. 1874, over two millions and halt had to be supported by the government, or they would have perished from starvation. In that year the Gov. ernment expended about $46, ,0OO, 900. and the province of Bengal, which was the chief sufferer, has not yet recovered from the effects of the disaster. An indirect mode of relief offered, is employment in building government railroads aud other public works. The numbers employed on the relief works in Madras, says the Ed. inburgh. "wsre 6O7 ,316, on the first week in February last; and, according to the estimate of the Bombay government the numbers requiring relief in April were ex- pected to be more than twice as many as in February" The public works, the build
 ing of railroads, the improvement of com mon roads. and the digging of irrigating canals have the good effect of offering permanent provision against the destruct-
 i've effects of future famines as well as a
 temporary relief of distress. The exten-
 sion of the Indian railroad system end.
 bles the government to bring sufficient
 supplies of grain to the regions suffering
 from famine. and tho canals of the Pun.
 iaub District alone irrigate nearly a mill
 lion and Q quarter acres of land. Nor