Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-12
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
IX-THE MAN WITH THE HOE
By Frederic j. Haskin

methods of threshing are those that
were employed in biblical times. Gram
Is piled in heaps, raised from tne
ground in scoops and poured 10 the
ground, the wind blowing the chaII
away as IL falls. When there is not
enough wind to use the winnowing
SCOOP, bamboo sieves are employed TO
sift the grain from the chaff. The IN
dian farmers cultivating implements
are as archaic as his manner OF thresh-
ing in the open field. His plow Is
wedge shaped block of hardwood faced
with iron, In front of which projects
draught pole attached to the neckyoke
of a pair of bumped bullocks whose
horns are almost as long as those of
the cattle that ranged the plains of the
southwest in the old days. As ham
die for the plow there is an awkward
single upright piece behind Unlike
the plows used in more progressive
countries for following, the Indian plow
does not turn the soil over, but merely
loosens 1t, the effect being somewhat
/ similar to that of a small double
shovel plow used to "split middles'
between corn rows in the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys.
When a light plow is used, several
plowings are necessary to sufficiently
break up the soil for tillage, but eli
pows are not light. Some are borne
I
or carried under his arm. Others are
drawn by six yoke" of oxen and break
the soil to a depth of a foot. Two OBJ
stacles stand in the way of introduce
ing modern turn furrow plows in In
dia. First, the Indian is averse to
showing disrespect to his most remote
ancestor by introducing innovations,
and in the second place he has little
money with which to buy the imple-
ments offered by American and Euro
pean manufacturers. Despite this
there is growing up a fairly substan-
tial demand for modern plows.
A distinetively Indian method of
breaking ground is by the use of a
crowbar. In southern India, where the
hot sun bakes and cracks the soil, the
crowbar is inserted in the cracks and
huge clods are levered out. Another
means of breaking up cracked soil is to
dig out the clods with a blade eighteen
inches long attached. like a hoe, to a
stout wood handle. When the Indian
| farmer spades his soil he uses a spade
| which points toward the workman in
| stead of away from him as II does in
America or Europe.
Compared to the Indian farm laborer
the man with the hoe in the United
| States is a nabob. In some cases the
Indian laborer is a bond servant, as
| the old fashioned system of agricul-
tural bondage has not been entirely
stamped out. If he is in bondage he
gets his board and his loin cloth, which
| is all that he wears, and the small
perquisites that commonly fall TO
! slaves, such as marriage expenses. II
| he is a free man he is fed and paid
in grain for his services. He some
! times gets a few farthings day in
cash instead of the old fashioned pay
ment in produce. During harvests,
/ anFlaAF fur
kings ransom for men and the wheat
fields of the west are the Mecca of
| every able-bodied workingman who
| cares to leave home for high wages,
| Indian laborers occasionally get a few
cents a day in cash. but, generally
| speaking, none but large employers
| pay cash. His lack of opportunity to
supply himself with funds makes 1t
practically impossible for the Indian
laborer to emigrate to another country
at his own expense. Although many
coolies in the southern provinces go to
Ceylon in boats furnished by tea farm
ers who offer better terms than can be
secured at home, there is not sufficient
! immigration of this kind to affect the
general agricultural equation.
India produces as many varieties of
crops as any other country. Rice, her
| largest crop, covers annually an area
as large as Indiana, Illinois and Mary
| land combined. She has large areas
of wheat, sugar cane, cotton, jute, to-
bacco, pepper, spice. tea, coffee, chin
coma and other field crops. One thou
sand square miles of soil is devoted
to the culture of poppies, from which
| steady stream of opium has flowed
to Chinese markets since the famous
or infamous-opium war was fought
to force the ports of China to remain
| open to a vicious trade.
Many varieties of fruits flourish, and
| there are large live stock industries
despite the fact that little meat is eater
| by the natives. Much land still re-
mains uncultivated enough with that
now titled to support the entire popu-
| lation 1t is an axiom Of economists
that where there is found fertile
country and a destitute people there
| is q fundamental error in government.
! Indians who protest against existing
conditions say that the fundamental
error in this country is that the land,
which provides 80 per cent of the rev.
enue, pays too large a share of the ex-
penses of maintaining the scientific
! frontier whichsis a part of Great Brit
aims policy with regard to Russia, and
other powers beyond the confines OF
his majesty's Indian empire.