82 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



enterprise will not suffer from lack of labor due to gov- 

 ernment competition. When there is no work in the 

 villages the people come to the famine relief work. As 

 soon as private enterprise can pay more than famine 

 work the private enterprise gets its labor. In addition, 

 to the land-owner, and to tenants having permanent 

 rights in the land, advances are made of money, 

 "Tacavi," long-term loans, usually at three per cent. 

 This money is to be spent for permanent improvements, 

 such as digging of wells with permanent masonry cylin- 

 ders or tile draining of land, the building of store rooms 

 of permanent material. One of the best ways to prevent 

 famine is to increase the irrigation facilities, for where 

 there is an abundant supply of irrigation water people 

 are indifferent to the amount of rainfall. As a result of 

 the irrigation system, large tracts that formerly were 

 desert and very precarious and uncertain are now secure 

 against any failure of the rains. The irrigation pro- 

 jects of India are divided into two classes, one protective, 

 the other productive. In the case of the protective irri- 

 gation project, the object is not to earn large dividends, 

 but the protection of the people in a famine year. In 

 parts of Central India which normally get sufficient rain- 

 fall, there is every four or five years a partial or total 

 failure of the rains when suffering and loss is very great. 

 Large irrigation works with storage reservoirs have been 

 put in. When there is a normal rainfall there is little 

 or no demand for the water which has been stored and 

 the project does not pay directly that year, but when 

 the rain fails, this water that has been stored, is used 

 and enables the country to tide over a bad time without 

 serious loss. The loss of water by surface evaporation is 



