THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM 123 



size; it costs less and is much simpler to look after. For these 

 reasons it has to some extent come into use in India and will 

 probably be very largely used in the future. The ideal engine 

 would be a small gas engine working with gas made from wood. 

 Already engines of about twenty horse-power with suction 

 gas producers using charcoal are employed ; something much 

 smaller than this is wanted and if wood can be substituted for 

 charcoal it will greatly reduce the working expenses. Already 

 there are hundreds of oil engines in use and there will, in 

 course of time, be many thousands. There is therefore a fair 

 inducement to engineers to study Indian requirements, as every 

 improvement will extend the range of their employment. It 

 is the very rapid progress that has been made with internal 

 combustion engines that has raised hopes that India may 

 gradually acquire an industrial system based on small units 

 of production and that is all the more likely to come about if 

 the attention of the engineering world is drawn to this fact. 

 Each industry and every branch of it should be the subject of 

 investigation to ascertain the lines along which motive power 

 may with advantage be introduced. The water-lifting question 

 has already been discussed and need not be further alluded to. 

 This is the largest field for the immediate application of power 

 but there are several others of great importance which have 

 been opened out, in which a great deal more could be done 

 if the machinery on the market were better adapted to the work 

 to be carried out. 



(i) Sitgar Mills. — For the crushing of sugar cane, rolls 

 9 in. X 18 in. are now in use in several places and are driven 

 by oil engines. The results are very satisfactory where there 

 is a sufficient area of cane in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the mill to keep it at work throughout the season. About 

 100 acres of cane could be dealt with by a single mill of this 

 size ; as no such area is grown by a single ryot, co-operative 

 working is the only way out of the difficulty. Growing sugar 

 is a very profitable operation but it requires capital and is 

 subject to risks. Heavy manuring is a necessity and with 

 cattle-driven mills the crushing of the canes is a long and 

 tedious operation. Consequently, ryots usually only grow a 

 small patch of cane. The extended use of artificial manures 

 and of power-driven mills would probably result in a very 

 considerable increase in the production of sugar. 



