UNEMPLOYMENT IN FAMINE YEARS 287 



roughly speaking, this is equivalent to the total sus- 

 pension of the industry for a year on four occasions 

 in one generation. If we were to assume that all 

 agriculturists were thrown out of work during a 

 famine, this would be equivalent to four famines in a 

 generation, or one famine every seven or eight years. 

 During the lifetime of the last generation (i.e., from 

 1870 to 1903) there have been two severe famines in 

 the United Provinces, and this method of calculation 

 would lead us to the conclusion that unemployment 

 in the iron industry in England was twice as frequent 

 as in agriculture in India. I would, however, point 

 out that this calculation is so very rough as to have 

 next to no value for purposes of comparison. In the 

 first place, we have, for India, no means of ascertaining 

 how many agriculturists are out of work or partially 

 employed in average years — i.e., the not-famine years. 

 In the second place, it is not correct to assume that, 

 even in a famine year, the whole of the agricultural 

 population is thrown out of work. In 1896 the out- 

 turn of the autumn harvest was 39*25 per cent, of an 

 average yield, and when the forecast of the ensuing 

 spring crops was most gloomy, it was estimated that 

 the area of the spring crops would be 58 per cent, 

 of the normal cultivation. In Bundelkhand, which 

 suffered most severely from this famine, the area sown 

 for spring reaping varied from one-fourth to one-half 

 of the usual extent. These figures show that even in 

 a very bad year there is a considerable amount of field 

 work to be done, and it is not correct to say that the 

 agricultural industry is entirely suspended. 



The figures with regard to unemployment in 

 England are more precise, but they do not cover the 

 whole field of labour. The statistics prepared by the 

 Board of Trade are accepted as the best available 

 indication of the condition of the labour market ; 

 these are prepared as follows : A large number of 

 Trade Unions in the engineering, shipbuilding, metal, 



