The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-05-22
THE HINDoo FARMER.
He Finds No Use for Western ASri-
cultural Methods.

~ 1@N@ HS1AI NLA( AA14 I&ANA
takes Is, 100000 acres; to feed Bengal,
and to feed Madras, 32,OOO,O 900 acres Of
properly watered lands! The popula-
ton OF these-only a portion, remem-
Der, of the vast country-would mount
up to at least 49, 600, 900 souls, and,
speaking generally, they all depend in
less or greater degree upon those time
ly kharif and rabi rains. Americans.
with huge areas of soil still happily left
to conquer, may ask why the area of
cultivated ground is not increased. The
reply is that, enormous albeit Hindo-
stan appears in extent upon the maps,
there is not much good ground remain
ing to be taken up, There are rich re-
gions where the climate is deadly, as in
the Terai; there are poor tracts where
population is scanty; but neither for
the old-fashioned Hindoo peasant nor
for modern men with new methods and
machinery does there exist any consid-
cradle margin of unused soil.
Could, then, the native cultivate
double his yield by manures? He GER
tainly employs none which are arti-
fetal and imported, like the n~itrates;
but he knows what he is about when his
own simple materials. and when high
authorities mock him for using up all
the cattle droppings for fuel cakes, he
laughs silently because he knows that
the ashes of gauri are just as precious to
the soil as the natural commodity I'M
burned. But practically the filth is
never seriously mended in India, except
close to the villages and for sugar cane,
opium, or garden crops, unless it be
by burning and scratching into the red
or gray soil some jungle branches and
dead leaves.
Neither have western machinery nor
scientific farming methods found any
success. What can Sussex, or even Mas
~sachusetts, do with the husbandman
who will insist on carrying a plow or a
Yheelbarrow upon his head, and whose
fathers for 5000 years past have stood
upon a pointed stick drawn by a buffalo
n order to make a two-inch furrow.
The Hindoo lives directly and placidly
from the bountiful hand of Heaven,
which he calls "Indra." Dwelling in his
village he tills only so much of the cul-
turable Jungle as can be easily reached
morning and evening by his slow-mov-
ing cattle. He has not the capital nor
the mind for costly western imple-
ments; and his winnowing machine is
still and always the wind blowing from
heaven. Jowarri and bajri are for the
humble; wheat, flour and rice for the
Brahmans and the rich, with plenty of
III IL 81 - L- l.. 49, g.. H. ...-4
which the strong Sahib and savage
Mahometan devour. Such is his simple
fare-millet cakes and boiled leaves of
rape and grain with Mhowa fruit, man
go, plantain and cocoanut-by these the
blameless existence of the Hindoo sus-
tains it's innocent span. Fowls and eggs
are held by most in adherence; no
cheese is so much as known; and about
100, 0O0, 1000 of that wonderful people
never taste animal food atall, unless in
the shape of milk, curds and CHI, which
last is clarified butter.
Thus all hangs upon Indra and the
rain. If the southwest monsoon is eX-
ceptionally late in setting in, or prema-
ture in its cessation, or scanty and ir-
regular, or excessive during it's period
of duration, great mischief may be done,
and any failure of the rain at this sea-
son is damaging not only to the crops
then growing but also to the winter
crops which are sown after the mon
soon stops, and to which a thoroughly
moistened seed bed is essential. The
early and late falls are looked for to
soften the soil and admit of the blowing
preparatory to sowing the kharif in the
one case and the rahi in the other, and
delay in putting in the seed beyond a
certain period is prejudicial to the
| growth and maturing of the crop. The
millets and pulses of the bharif crop are
hardy plants, and can zeal a great deal
of irregularity; but any partial cessa-
ton of the rainfall exceeding a month
in duration, or, as il is called, "a break
in the rains of the monsoon, will do
them great injury, especially if, as is
sometimes the case during such a break,
a hot, dry wind also sets in. Rice is more
delicate, and perishes if the plants are
either too deeply submerged or their
roots left dry for a few days, and for
this reason the winter rice of Bengal
and theses coast is a precarious crop,
dependent on the continuation of rain
fall in September and October, after the
monsoon has generally ceased in upper
India.
The self-respcct of Hindoos is prodigi-
Gus; and they ''lose face" in applying to
any save a kinsman for food, which. in
deed, asNmany Americans will know, is,
especially if thus obtained, UNBEATABLE
for high castles when not lawfully pre-
pared. A Hindoo servant, whom l de-
sired to cure surreptitiously of his
deadly weakness after fever by beef tea,
told me, quite sweetly, that he would
have poisoned me, upon recovery, if
had carried out the idea. Again, the
purdah-nashin, the curtain jewellers, u
those women who must not be seen in
public-a foolish fashion adopted from
the Mogul, and never really Aryan-
cannot their misery, nor take
an aims bowl to the relief camp. There
is a vast category of these-women and
children-who begin slowly and Ger.