[ 5 ] 



of export of indigenous produce can be inferred from the 

 fact that, during the same 6 1 years, the balance of import 

 of gold over export was of the value of Rs. 146,68,00,000. 

 Of this only Rs. 2,44,40,000 worth of gold was used during 

 the 61 years in the mint for coinage, and the balance of gold 

 to the value of Rs. 144,00.00,000 must have been absorbed 

 by the people, chiefly in making articles of jewellery, which 

 are pawned largely in famine times. Poor as the Indian 

 raiyat has always been, his poverty is not so intense now as 

 it used to be, and he can afford to spend money on little 

 luxuries which his forefathers never dreamt of enjoying. 

 The ambition of the landless labourer is to buy land and to 

 become an agriculturist. The man who earns Rs. 10 or Rs. 

 12 a month in a Calcutta mill also looks forward to saving 

 enough of money for buying land and cattle and settling 

 down as an agriculturist. Surely agriculture pays, and it is 

 not in that depressed condition in which it happens to be in 

 some countries in Europe. 



7. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not mean agri- 

 culture will pay a ' gentleman. ' It is only by dint of hard 

 labour and frugality that the Indian cultivator makes agri- 

 culture to pay him. If a gentleman were to employ labourers 

 and go in for ordinary farming, he will find these labourers 

 ( so industrious when working for themselves) sleeping over 

 his work and accomplishing very little when pretending to 

 be doing work actually in his presence. He can never 

 compete with the actual cultivators in ordinary agriculture, 

 as by their frugality and industry they will be able to get 

 their outturn at a smaller cost and thus undersell him. 

 He may succeed with a new crop, but only for a time. 

 When the cultivator finds out how he grows it, and where 

 he sells it, he (the cultivator) will grow it at a smaller cost and 

 put it on the market at a smaller price. I have taught 

 scientific methods of sericulture during 11 years to a large 

 number of persons, among whom were a number of actual 



