476 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Canton of Vaud, for example, where the new ideas are spe- 

 cially exemplified, wealthy families are reported as having left 

 the Canton, and that many of its citizens regularly close their 

 houses for nine months in the year in order to evade the law. 

 Foreigners, too, are said to be less and less anxious to reside in 

 the canton. In consequence of this, it is claimed that many prop- 

 erties in Vaud have depreciated fifty per cent, and that trade suf- 

 fers greatly. Whether all these allegations are true or not, it is 

 significant that a proposal to introduce the Vaud system into the 

 Canton of Berne was rejected by its people by an overwhelming 

 majority. 



Addendum. Readers of the chapter on the Tax Experiences 

 of India, in the preceding number of the Popular Science Month- 

 ly, have written to ask if there is any explanation of the remark- 

 able difference in opinion respecting the material condition of the 

 people of India, recently expressed in the British House of Com- 

 mons (and quoted) by two of its members, Mr. J. S. Keay and Sir 

 Richard Temple, both ex-officials of long service in the Govern- 

 ment of India, and having had large opportunities for becoming 

 acquainted with the country. 



The explanation is probably to be found in the old story of the 

 two knights who differed and quarreled about the mottoes on 

 suspended shield, by reason of exclusively viewing it from oppc 

 site sides. India is a vast country, about half as large in land are* 

 (square miles) as the United States, exclusive of Alaska, and wit! 

 a population of 287,000,000, so widely separated by caste, lan- 

 guage, and religions, that districts and villages that have been i] 

 close contiguity for long periods practically do not know or have 

 intercourse with each other. In those portions of the country 

 where the inhabitants are fairly intelligent, have learned to avail 

 themselves of modern methods of agriculture, and have irrig* 

 tion and transportation facilities, the production of foods and othei 

 commodities is so far in excess of any domestic demand, as t( 

 admit of such a large and constant export of grain stuffs as 

 threaten disturbance to the markets of Europe and the Unite 

 States, besides textiles, fibers, dyestuffs, opium, oils and oil seeds, 

 hardware, sugar, etc. In other districts of large population where 

 the people still plow with crooked sticks, do not even recognize 

 the value of manures or other fertilizers, are almost entirely lack- 

 ing in facilities for transportation, and are so bound down by casl 

 that it is difficult to induce them to emigrate to districts like 

 the Assam tea producing sections where labor is in good deman< 

 at comparatively high wages in such districts the increase ol 

 population so presses on its ordinary food supplies that, in cas 

 of any deficiency in the average crops, famine always ensues, an< 



