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Fairly good land, and a great deal of it, would be 

 wanted, and the people can't spare this ; and irriga- 

 tion is essential, and this is not at all generally avail- 

 able during the hot weather ; and a certain amount of 

 capital would be required, and the people have it not ; 

 and the money-lenders would not advance it for a 

 crop of which the greater part was not to come to 

 them direct, and it is altogether a new thing, such as 

 neither they nor their fore-fathers ever heard of ; and, 

 though in particular localities it might from the very 

 outset be pressed, and perhaps successfully, on some 

 few of the people, it must be many many years before 

 there can be the smallest chance of its general adop- 

 tion. 



But there is one thing that can be done^^a thing 

 that is entirely in accord with the traditions of the 

 country — a thing that the people would understand, 

 appreciate, and, with a little judicious pressure, co- 

 operate in, and that is the planting up with trees of a 

 certain sufficient area in every village in the drier por- 

 tions of the country. 



The undertaking is a very large one, but presents 

 no insuperable difficulties ; it is a gigantic hill to cut 

 away, but it is all earth and no rock, its greatness is 

 purely numerical. There are an immense number of 

 spadesful to be lifted, but the lifting each is per- 

 fectly easy. Energy, perseverance, and time are all 

 that is necessary. Once a sufficient area planted in 

 each neighbourhood as a communal forest, and the 

 cattle difficulty is at an end ; the forest would be 

 closed till other fodder was consumed and the fields 

 were bare, and then they would be opened to the vil- 



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