THEORIES CONCERNING SOIL FERTILITY 335 



tunately, he is able to spare little of this for enriching the field, for timber 

 is scarce in most parts of India and the cow chips are used for fuel. 



"When these old-fashioned methods are taken into consideration, it is easy 

 to understand why agriculture does not pay in India. Since 95 per cent of the 

 people of Hindustan are engaged in farming or allied industries, it is easy to 

 realize why the people of India live in excruciating poverty. Famine rages in 

 the country all the year round, and it will continue, to do so until the East 

 Indian agriculturist is taught to use better methods. As it is, only one out of 

 147 women and only ten out of 100 men farmers are capable of reading and 

 writing, and only one out of every five villages in India has a schoolhouse. 



"The home life of the farmer is so filled with desperate poverty that it lacks 

 all picturesque details. . . . The house usually consists of but one room or, at 

 best, two or three, and all of these are most rudely furnished. There are no 

 carpets on the floor, which is of dirt, uncovered by boards or even by matting. 

 The men and women usually squat on the floor, using small, narrow pieces of 

 gunny sacks to sit on. The bedstead is home-made and may be described as a 

 cot made in the most elementary manner of bamboo laced across with coarse 

 twine. The same room is used for storing goods of all descriptions, preparing 

 and eating food, and for sitting and sleeping purposes. Not unoften the cattle 

 are given a corner in the room. Since the married sons of the father live at 

 home, the shortage of space compels two or three families to herd together in 

 the same apartment. 



"Life for the woman is especially filled with drudgery. She gets up between 

 three and four o'clock in the morning. While the husband is feeding the stock 

 she milks the cows. Over night the milk has been boiled and allowed to curdle. 

 The woman puts it into an earthen pot and churns it. Buttermilk forms an 

 important item of the scanty breakfast. About the only thing that the farmer 

 eats along with the whey is corn or wheat bread, which, unlike in this country, 

 is made thin like a pancake and six or eight inches in diameter. Both men and 

 women take a bite of this bread and pour down a quantity of buttermilk. In 

 eating no knives, forks, spoons, are employed. The fingers are made to perform 

 the various eating operations." 



"The life of great hardship and excruciating poverty that farmers in India 

 are obliged to lead makes them subnormal. They lack vim and vitality. In 

 their waking moments they are only half awake. Through insufficient nutrition 

 they are unable to do the hard physical work they would be able to do otherwise. 

 Naturally the people in India are fatalists by religion. They look upon life 

 as an adversity that has to be shouldered as best it can be. They are not afraid 

 of death ; in fact, they long for death, for they believe that on the other side of 

 existence they would lead a happier and a better-fed life. Thus do the people of 

 India live and labor." 



In China, the fourth great agricultural country comparable with 

 the United States in extent and necessary self-dependence, there 

 are areas of arable upland plains, sometimes 100 square miles or 



