38 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



If the boy leaves the mission in order to follow his trade 

 in the open market he immediately comes into conflict 

 with the caste trades union which will not only not ad- 

 mit him, but which will boycott anyone who employs 

 him, until he is compelled to fall back into the ranks 

 of the casual laborer and thus the missionaries' effort 

 is largely wasted. The boy also does not get a fair 

 chance in life. 



Then too it is not worth while for a missionary to de- 

 vote his life to teaching shoe-making, tailoring, carpen- 

 tering or blacksmithing in India. When a Christian boy 

 is trained to any of these trades, even if there were not 

 the difficulty of caste tradesmen to contend, with, the 

 wages he can earn at present are not such that he can 

 live decently and bring up a family on them. His pre- 

 war wages in Northern India would have been about 

 sixteen cents per day. Wages have risen but so have 

 prices. It is essential for missions to train their con- 

 verts in those callings where they are not likely to run 

 counter to any caste trades union and where they may 

 be sure of earning a living wage. There are less caste 

 restrictions in farming than in any other occupation, 

 and those restrictions that do exist, usually apply to the 

 higher, rather than to the lower castes. 



India is about one million eight hundred thousand 

 square miles in extent, that is, one-half the size of the 

 United States and Alaska. Nearly one million square 

 miles is culturable. About two hundred and fifty 

 thousand square miles are forest. The rest is called un- 

 culturable waste. Much of this unculturable waste can 

 be reclaimed by modern methods of drainage; by pre- 

 vention of erosion; by washing out harmful salts from 

 alkali lands; and by use of power plowing machinery. 



