214 THE DIRECTION OF INDUSTRY 



of manure, and haulage power at his disposal ; but 

 they are very real and forcible to the peasant, whose 

 resources are extremely limited. 



* Dr. Voelcker realizes this when he writes : " I 

 cannot help suspecting that the system of shallow 

 ploughing, as practised by the native, and his aver- 

 sion to ploughs that turn over a broad slice and 

 form a wide furrow, may have something to do 

 with this matter of the retention of moisture, and 

 that the effect of deep ploughing would too generally 

 be to lose the very moisture the cultivator so 

 treasures," ' 



When the European entrepreneur has manufactured 

 his goods with what skill and economy in production 

 he can command, he still has the no less important 

 and difficult task of selling his goods to the best ad- 

 vantage, and all his skill and economy in production 

 may be thrown away if he misconceives the market in 

 which he has to dispose of them. With the successful 

 harvesting of his crop the Indian cultivator's main 

 care for the season is over ; the agricultural produce 

 which he has brought forth is intended in the first 

 place for food for himself and his family. If he is 

 deeply indebted to his landlord or the money-lender, 

 he may be compelled to sell in order to realize ready- 

 money ; and occasionally he is tempted by unusually 

 high prices to part with all his store, with the result 

 that he is generally obliged to buy it back again from 

 the local grain-dealer at a higher price. But the 

 cultivator in ordinarily prosperous circumstances who 

 is not at the mercy of the money-lender will set aside 

 enough of the harvest for the consumption of his family, 

 and sell only so much as is over after satisfying his 

 own wants. But though we must always bear in mind 

 that for this reason a large proportion of the food- 

 stuffs produced every year in India never comes into 

 the market at all, yet the prosperity of the cultivator 

 depends very directly upon the price at which he can 



