WHEAT CULTUEE IN INDIA. 571 



CAREFUL CULTIVATION. 



The farmer oi India, without knowledge of science, without skill, 

 and with onlj' a rude implement for a plow, yet in the most scicntilic 

 manner, makes the atmosphere enrich his soil, for the atmosphere, to- 

 gether with light, heat, and moisture, produces nitrogenous matter, and 

 the farmer, rooting or plowing his land twenty or thirty times before he 

 sows his wheat, gives the soil a chance to feed upon this free, cheap, 

 and abundant food. The American farmer turns over his soil in the 

 fall, lets it lie a hard, comi)act mass all winter, and in the spring sows 

 his seed upon the hard surface, thus slighting every aid to plant growth 

 that the atmosphere gives him. Take' the average soil of these prov- 

 inces to Minnesota, and it would be hardly worth cultivating. Bring 

 the average soil of Minnesota here, and it could all be sold as a ferti- 

 lizer. 



It is the " glorious climate" of India that is its greatest wealth, and 

 the untutored, son of toil makes use of it to the greatest advantage. 



The land has been cultivated from time immemorial and still is not 

 exhausted. The people, being so very poor and obliged to consume 

 everything for themselves and their cattle and unable to import or i3ur- 

 chase fertilizers, have but very little with which to feed the soil. That 

 little is all used with the very best results. The experiments at the 

 Government experimental farm show that thorough plowing and timely 

 sufficient irrigation are after all the most important factors in productian, 

 and they also show that a thorough upturning and exposure of the 

 soil is sure to give in return a good crop. 



There is something else in this exposure of the soil to the sun. When 

 the rains begin, the air and earth abound with insect life. Scarcely a 

 step can be taken without treading on insects, crawling, running every- 

 where, and while walking, riding, driving, there is a continual swarm 

 of insects about one. At night, when the lamps are lighted, the tables 

 or sx)ace about the lamps are covered with scores of kinds of insects, 

 from big moths down to midges. These are the seen and felt, but the 

 unseen infinite myriads! With every plowing the soil must receive 

 much of this animal life; with everj'^ shower of rain there must be an 

 insect shower, and with every breeze there must be myriads of lives 

 wrecked upon the sticky clods of the plowed fields which make food for 

 the coming crop. The living feed upon the dead. 



HOW THEY TILL THE SOIL. 



The India farmer has scarcely any tools, and what he has are of the 

 simplest kind. There being no hard, gravelly soil, no stiff clay, no hard- 

 pan, and no sticky, calcareous soil to work, is a great advantage to 

 him. By a very crude implement, which can scarcely be called a plow, 

 the land is torn up. This plow consists of a triangular piece of wood, 

 about IS inches in length, and G inches in diameter at the larger end, 

 th(' other being pointed. On the flat side of this bit of wood a groove 

 is made into which a flat piece of iron, a foot in lengtli, an inch wide, 

 and lialf an inch thick, is inserted and held in its place by a staple. The 

 staple underneath does not interfere with the rooting. This iron bar, 

 which is pointed, serves as a nose or point to the plow. The larger end 

 of this triangular piece of wood is mortised into an upright stick, the 

 latter about 3 feet in length, at the toi:> of which is a wooden pin on the 

 front side for a handle. About 18 inches from the ground a strip of 

 board 3 inches wide, an inch and a half thick, and 8 feet long, is in- 

 serted into the upright stick, and serves as a beam and tongue. The 

 yoke is a straight stick C feet long, 3 inches in diameter, with four wooden 



