24 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



month. You have a wife and four children and get two 

 and a half dollars a month. Yet, you complain of the 

 difficulty. How much harder then for him. So I 

 thought if he were willing to work extra, I would pay 

 him for it, and you would get your digging done and he 

 would have more food for his family." "Yes, Sahib 

 that is all true, but you see he is not of my caste and so 

 cannot work in the garden with me. If he stays, I go. 

 If I stay while he works in the garden my castefellows 

 will not drink water or smoke the huqqa with me, and 

 I cannot suffer the disgrace of this just for a sweeper. 

 So I must leave." I call the sweeper away from the 

 garden and explain the trouble to him. He understands 

 perfectly well the reason. We both know that if the 

 gardener leaves, I cannot get another. They would boy- 

 cott me if I allowed my gardener to leave for such a 

 reason. So the sweeper must look otherwhere to sell his 

 labor, and always with the same result, so with sad, re- 

 signed air he accepts his fate. Not the oppression of the 

 Indian by the foreigner, but the oppression of the In- 

 dian by the system of caste which is the heart and essence 

 of the religion of the Hindus. Certain castes may not 

 touch the plow or the digging tool ; others may not apply 

 manure to their fields. Caste is often behind the preju- 

 dice against the introduction of labor saving machinery. 

 Certain castes may grow field crops but may not grow 

 vegetables, others may grow vegetables but not field 

 crops. In America it is the custom for nearly every 

 farmer to have a garden in which is grown, in season, 

 sufficient fresh vegetables for the family. The discovery 

 of the importance of the "vitamines" which exist in 

 fresh, green vegetables and in milk and fruit and the 

 part which they play in the growth and development of 



