The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-04-21
Wheat Production in India.

been called the ''plant of civilization. "
Grain certainly constitutes the bread of
civilized people in the world, and as saw
age nations become civilized they en-
gage in the culture of wheat. 1t is
grown more or less extensively in every
country in Europe and America, and in
nearly every portion of the world colon
lied by Europeans. The production of
wheat has increased in Algeria and
Funis since their occupation by the
French. The English introduce the
culture of wheat wherever they settle.
Without doubt Asiatic Turkey consti-
'tuteS one of the best wheat producing
countries in the world. Means of trans
portation alone prevent the supplying of
most of the western countries of Europe
with wheat raised in the valleys of the
Tigris and Euphrates. Wheat has been
produced in India from the earliest his
toric period, and under British rule the
production has constantly increased.
The agricultural reports of the country
are by no means complete, but it is be-
lieved that the present yield of wheat
amounts to 100000, 900 bushels. The
amount exportedin 1879 was only 2. 170,-
63i. but the amount sent abroad last
season amounted to 81, 1876, 481 bushels.
The general average yield is twelve bush
els per acre, though by high cultivation
and irrigation three times that amosnt
has been raised.
Colonel Mattson, Consul General of
the United States, stationed at Calcutta,
has made an official report to the De-
partment of State on wheat-growing
ia I'M nd oh Io ~
SO large an increase in the future as to
exert powerful influence on the price
of the grain in the leading market of
the world. He believes that, with the
present antiquated methods, wheatis pro-
duced as cheaply in India as in the most
favored portions of the United States,
owing to the low price oflabor, and that
by the employment of machinery it may
be produced much cheaper. The diff
Guilty in competing with the United States
is the cost of inland transportation.
The wheat-producing regions are not
gridironed by railroads as are those in
this country, and improved earth-roads
'are-almost unknown. The attention of
the local Government has been called,
however, to these matters, and immedi-
ate steps will be taken to provide means
for transporting wheat across the coun-
try. An effort will also be made to re-
-duce the cost of ocean transportation.
In relation to the cost and method of
cultivation and the facilities for handling,
the report says: The latitude has but
little influence on the wheat crop in India
compared with differences in soil and
mode of cultivation. The crop requires
a great deal Of moisture, hence irrigation
IS OF special Importance, and various
methods are employed for that purpose;
the one destined to become a leading
factor in the production of wheat is that
OF canal irrigation, which is now re-
-oeiving the special attention of the gen
eral and local Governments, and impor-
tant works are being made and projected
for an extensive system of canal irriga-
ton. One of these, the ''Sirhind" Canal,
in the Puniab, has just been completed;
1t was built mainly by prison labor, is
SOP miles long, and will irrigate $50, 900
acres through $500 miles of minor chan
nels.
The wheat is sown in the autumn and
harvested in March OF April; it is usually
sown in drills or rows, and weeded like
garden stuff and in quantities not much
larger than garden patches in the United
States, but the agricultural population
numbers nearly 200, 900, 900, and it is the
aggregate of innumerable little units
which in agriculture, as in everything
else in India, brings the country into inn
portance, and this fact is so closely inter-
woven with the whole social industrial
and legal network of India that it bears
a strong influence even upon the future
question of India VS.. Americas wheat.
The Indian agricultufist ''ryot'' can in
no sense be compared to the American
farmer, but rather to the late serf of
Russia He is tenant on hard condi-
tlons. and is by custom and bigotry al
most fixture on the particular spot of
land where he was born; his farming is
done on a very small scale and according
to old methods, to which he clings
with religious generation; his wants
are very few, and he endures pov-
erty and even hunger with patience;
he cultiyates his patch of five to
fifteen acres on shares for the landed
proprietor, ''zemidar," who holds I'M
der rental to the Government, and the
better half of his gross income generally
goes to the zemidar, the priest (''brah-
min") and the usurer in the form of rent,
presents, offerings and interest. and if he
can get ten cents day by his hard and
hopeless labor, that will suffice for the
most pressing wants of his household.
his home is mud-or bamboo-hut, his
property pair of small bullocks, few
cows. calves and goats, wooden cart
and few brass and earthen pots, in all
worth about fifty dollars, and his imple-
ments and tools are of the rudest kind,
such as his ancestors used a thousand
years ago; and yet he is making some
progress under British rule, and finds his
wants increasing, and at the same time
better outlets for his produce and more
recompense for his labor, and, on the
whole. is so independent on ten cents a
day that he will eat or store his wheat
rather than sell it below certain price.
Of course he does not employ machinery
in farming, but plows his land with a
crooked piece of iron-pointed wood,
Aarrowsitw with an instrument resembling
q common ladder laid flat on the ground
and dragged by the little bullocks or oss-
ways over the field; he sows by hand,
reaps with sickle. carries the sheaves
home on his back or in the bullock cart,
sfns.a thor,