Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-09-06
Wheat RAISING in India.

neat raising III l1dla,
The people of the United States are at
loss what to do with their prison labor
They have nearly 80. 900 convicts in
their various penitentiaries whose labor
IS cutting under the wages of free work
ln@men in all the various cities and
| towns. people. not even the Chinese,
are slower TO adopt foreign methods in
any respect than American officials gen.
orally, Tor the reason that we are so
ueau sure that it IS absolutely impossi-
ole Tor anybody any where to Get IN idea
worth our borrowing.
But in India the wheat export has
been brought UP from $40. 900 bushels in
!o'2 to $4,000, 900 in 1892; how? Large
~ through the system of irrigation en-
forced by the British Government to
encourage the growth of wheat. One
OF our conSulS in India writes: ..One of
these sln-hued canals in the Puniab has
just been completed; it was built MAIN
ly by prison labor. is SOP miles lono
and will irrigate 100 600 acres. through
1000 miles OF minor channels" Enc
land has destroyed the manufactures of
India by the competition of her cheaper
machine-pOwer with the hand-looms of
the HindoOS, and has inflicted APPALLING
suffering upon the people of thatSubiect
country. The population of India has
probably been reduced within a century
by number equal to the entire popula-
ton Of Great Britain and Ireland. Now.
however, England is seriously TRYING to
make POO, 100000 of people avaiiable in
agriculture alone in HindoStan without
manufactures. Such is the need felt
there of revivinG the native manufac-
lures that although there are only 167.-
900 white persons in India. apart from
the army, the Council of India actually
adopted system OF protective duties
for shutting out English goods and de
Veloplng native manufactures. which
was only prevented from taking effect
by the veto of the Governor General,
who did not attempt to base his veto on
the ground of Hindoo, but exclusively
on that of English interest.
Feeling the need of putting forth her
culean efforts to employ the native ryot
population in agriculture, and wheat
being almost the only agricultural pro-
duct that will bear TRANSFORMATION to
England, the entire convict force of In
dia is employed upon these works of
irrigation and of railway building. In
dia'S capacity for the export of wheat
has now become a fourth rs great as
that of the United States, and is strid-
ing upward with great rapiditv. 1t is
quite within bounds to say that the In
dian capacity of production is likely to
supply the whole English demand before
the close Of ten years more That means
lower prices on our wheat export and
that IN turn means cheaper cost of pro-
duction. While England is fighting our
wheat crop in India with her bio canals.
our chief resource for fighting her will
be our bonanza farms. They could con-
tlnue to raise wheat ut Il profit if wheat
should drop to 80 or even 80 cents Il
bushel, rs the figures concerning many.
OF them show. Irrigation, however.
would enable us to extend our boHanza
farming over broad regions which will
otherwise remain as bad lands. but
from which the transportation will be
less than from Dakota or Wyoming
we could not profitably utilize
upon similar kinds of public works the
same kind of convict labor with which
so much progress is being made in IN
dia,is u question fairly in order Chica-
90 Inter Ocean.