HAPPY INDIA 87 



is the cowdung that is now used for fuel. It is 

 therefore necessary to supply the cultivators with 

 wood or coal for their fuel requirements. This 

 could be done almost immediately if the Government 

 were prepared to incur the expense of supplying 

 them with wood or with coal, bringing the wood 

 from a distance, or the coal from a distance, as the 

 case might be. 



If plantations were immediately begun in every 

 district, in two or three years' time there would be 

 a sufficiency of wood grown on the spot, and so 

 save the cost of transport ; and if at the same time 

 a general system of afforestation was started and 

 carried out with energy, there is no doubt that in 

 a few years from this time Indian agriculture and 

 Indian prosperity would be on the up-grade, and 

 the rulers of India might look with satisfaction on 

 the wealth of the people as it increases, and know 

 that the people we^e well fed and that British rule 

 was creditable to us and to the British nation. 



Of course the question immediately arises, How 

 much would it cost to supply this wood or this coal 

 whilst the plantations were growing ? Probably to 

 supply all the cultivators with the fuel they require 

 at once would cost at the rate of 20,000,000 to 

 30,000,000 a year. On the other hand, there is 

 another method. Instead of supplying the cultivators 

 with fuel so that the land might be manured with 

 cowdung, they might be supplied with artificial 

 manure. Sufficient artificial manure to supply the 

 land whilst the cowdung was being burnt would 



