WORK IN NATIVE STATES 103 



agriculture and who was to make use of the village labor. 

 It was to improve the condition of the poor farmers of 

 the state that His Highness started the department ; not 

 to allow outsiders to come in to exploit it. Owing to 

 the fact that there are such large areas of uncultivated 

 land in the state, over six hundred thousand acres of 

 excellent land lying idle, the Maharajah thought it best 

 to get labor-saving machinery. About one million dol- 

 lars was set aside for this purpose and orders were 

 placed in America, but owing to the fact that the United 

 States went into the war most of our orders were can- 

 celed and we received very little machinery. I recently 

 heard from a firm of tractor builders in America that 

 they have shipped this summer fourteen of the tractors 

 to the Maharajah and I think before long the whole 

 million dollars' worth of agricultural machinery will 

 have been sent out. This is good business for the manu- 

 facturer and of very great value to India. Better farm 

 tools and implements are at the very foundation of im- 

 proved agriculture for India. With his present tools 

 and implements the Indian farmer has gone as far as he 

 can go. In case of failure of the rains or any other un- 

 toward circumstance he is compelled to sit in helpless 

 inactivity. The ground is too hard for him to work. 

 His little plow can not even scratch the hard ground. 

 The American plow behind a tractor enables this hard 

 ground to be properly opened up and broken down so 

 that when the rain falls instead of most of the water 

 running off, most of it soaks into the ground and, if 

 the ground is then harrowed, is stored in the ground 

 until the crops need it, just as in the case of our "dry 

 farming" in the west of America. This deep plowing 

 which turns under the manure and other organic matter 



