THE CULTIVATOR'S PLOUGH 213 



to force upon him, he can show reasonable grounds 

 for his disapproval. They are in some cases too 

 expensive for his narrow means, too intricate, and 

 incapable of repair by the unskilled village artisan. 

 Their object is often to save labour, an important gain 

 to a farmer in the Western States, but unnecessary 

 here, where labour is a drug on the market ; or, like 

 the plough, they offend the first principles of the 

 science which he has received from the wisdom of his 

 ancestors. He looks on a modern threshing machine 

 or scarifier with amazement, but without any enthu- 

 siasm. They are inventions, like the engine on the 

 railway, entirely beyond his practical experience, 

 suitable enough for wealthy sahibs who can afford to 

 buy and work them, but useless to a poor man like 

 himself 



' And even in his affection for his ancient plough, 

 which is still only one stage ahead of the stake with 

 which the savage scratches up the soil, he is not with- 

 out some reason on his side. Anything heavier will 

 be beyond the strength of his half-starved cattle ; any- 

 thing that goes deeper and turns over the clods equally 

 offends him. It may bring sterile sand or clay to the 

 surface ; the damp slice turned over and exposed to 

 the power of the relentless sun gets baked like a brick, 

 and it is beyond his power to pulverize it. It will not 

 give him the fine tilth which absorbs every drop of 

 the precious dew or other moisture falling upon it ; it 

 may bury the noxious weeds instead of bringing them 

 to the surface, where they can be collected or burnt. 

 But his great complaint is that it widens the area to 

 be manured. His present scanty supply barel}' suffices 

 to fertilize the thin topmost layer of the upper soil. 

 What will become of it, he thinks, when a foot or 

 more of the subsoil, which has never been aerated or 

 manured, is suddenly brought to the surface ? Argu- 

 ments such as these may seem crude and meaningless 

 to the capitalist farmer with ample means, abundance 



