84 KECETSIT FOREIGN EXPLORATIONS. 



manipulate the hueket, and one in the field to distribute the water. 

 Three men and four oxen will water ID acres of wheat during the 

 cropping- season. 



KICE PRODUCED. 



In 1900 there were in the provinces of Bengal, Burma, and Madras 

 49,915,918 acres in rice, which produced 43.5,822,000 barrels. If we 

 place the product of the remaining 22.893.039 acres in rice at 

 183.144,312 barrels, the total for India would be 618,966,312 barrels 

 of rough rice, or about 177 times more than the entire rice product of 

 the United States. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE PUNJAB. 



Hon. C. L. Dundas. director of land records and agriculture for the 

 Punjab, stated. -in reply to inquiries, that — 



Unirrigated rice can only be grown in the puliinontane tracts, where there is 

 heavy rainfall. The average yield i.< about 550 pounds per acre. On irrigated lands 

 the average yield is about 900 pounds. A good crop would be 1,200 pounds, and 

 1,500 can be obtained by careful cultivation. In the Punjab this is produced almost 

 invariably by owners with small holdings. If the holding is large, part is culti- 

 vated by the tenant on the share plan, the tenant paying one-fourth to one-half the 

 gross product. Hired labor is employed sometimes in transplanting and generally 

 in harvesting. This is paid for in kind. 



Throughout the Punjab, women of the agricultural class are employed in the 

 lighter kinds of outdoor field laV)or, such as harvesting, picking cotton, etc. The 

 women of certain tribes of high so"ial or religious character never work in the 

 field, but generally women work on the lands of their male relatives. Compensa- 

 tion consists in their food and a small present in kind at the close of the harvest, 

 practically subsistence and nothing more, but differing from the starvation wages of 

 civilized countries by the patriarchal customs of India, which forbid a man from 

 tilling his own stomach while leaving his employee hungry. Hence harvest wages 

 depend entirely on the harvest. If this is good, the laborer, male or female, may 

 get enough grain to keep him or her two or three months. Unless forced by famine, 

 women will not work in. the field except for their male relatives. In the Himalayas 

 the women do all the farm work, including plowing. 



Windmills being unknown and water mills impossible on the plains, all the grain 

 used as food in India is gromid on handmills (small stone burrs) by women. Spin- 

 ning is universal, and much of the coarse cloth used for clothing is manufactured at 

 home. 



The cost of labor necessary to produce a crop of rice is about 45 per cent of the 

 total product grown, including the straw. To give a definite cash estimate of cost is 

 practically impossible. A landlord would, in a typical case, pay some 8 per cent 

 customary dues and divide the Ijalance with his tenant, paying one-half his own 

 share in water rates and land revenue to the Government. The revenue or tax to 

 the Government varies from $1.50 to $3 per acre. As a rule, the landlord works 

 his own farm. 



The highly flavored rices are regarded as choice, but the people prefer to plant the 

 coarser varieties, as giving less trouble. There is apparently great obscurity in the 

 scientific names of rices, and it is difficult to distinguish varieties. 



Wheats, millets, and gram (peas) form the staple crops, wheat being the chief 

 article of export. Considerable cotton is produced. About 110 pounds of lint cotton 

 is an average crop for an acre. It sells at about 5 cents per pound. 



