50 HAPPY INDIA 



conditions of the poor cultivator who has land and 

 the poor labourer who has no land : one is to make 

 a more fair division of the products of the soil, and 

 the other, and by far the most important remedy, is 

 to increase the products of the soil, care being taken 

 that the increased product of the soil does not go 

 to some rent-receiver or money-lender, so as to 

 cheat both the cultivator and the revenue. 



Every person who visits the agricultural districts 

 of India and sees the fields and the houses of the 

 cultivators, and who takes any interest or has any 

 thought about the products of the soil, is at once 

 struck by this most important and most monstrous 

 fact, that a very large part of the manuie that should 

 go into the soil to increase its productiveness is 

 used as a fuel for warming the dwellings and for 

 cooking the food and other purposes. The cow 

 dung is picked up and plastered in cakes on the 

 walls of the houses so that it may dry in the sun. 

 Sometimes it is kept for the use of the householder, 

 sometimes it is sold to the town for the use of people 

 there. If a visitor remarks upon this fact, he is 

 told : " Oh ! it cannot be helped, there is no other 

 fuel that these poor people can afford to buy ; there 

 is no wood, and they cannot afford to pay for coal, 

 and therefore they must use this manure for the 

 purposes of fuel." 



So that from east to west and from north to south, 

 with the exception of Burmah, this use of a very 

 valuable manure is the general practice in British 

 India. The mere fact that this is done is sufficient 



