t "07 ] 



are planted 6 inches deep while others only I or 2 inches 

 deep. But whenever a labourer plants a cutting i or 2 inches 

 deep, he must be made to plant it 5 or 6 inches deep, until 

 a proper habit is established. A labourer, however, who is 

 accustomed to do sugarcane planting in his own family, will 

 habitually plant the cuttings 5 or 6 inches deep when planting 

 them erect, or 3 inches deep when planting them horizon- 

 tally. If expert labourers can be secured it is always better. 

 But cultivators in this country go in for cultivating so few 

 crops that expert labourers can be had only for doing the 

 cultivation of two or three crops properly. An ordinary culti- 

 vating labourer will transplant paddy neatly and fast, broadcast 

 jiite and kalai seeds evenly, harvest the paddy and the jute 

 in the proper style, but in doing the cultivation of a new 

 kind of crop he will be found awkward and slow. 



136. The calculation for hand- power is fraught with 

 more difficulty than that for steam-power, horse-power, or 

 bullock-power. An English farm labourer in his own country 

 does far more work than an Indian farm-labourer, and an 

 Indian farm-labourer will do far more work for himself than 

 for another party, while one class of labourers even in the 

 same part of the country do habitually more work than an- 

 other class of labourers. Further complication arises from 

 the fact that a certain class of labourers will do a certain kind 

 of work well while they will do another kind of work very 

 imperfectly. The Sonthal labourer will dig more than a 

 Bengali labourer, but the latter will transplant more paddy. 

 The Sonthal woman will transplant a great deal more paddy 

 than the Sonthal man. An English farm-labourer in digging 

 does 250 ft.-lbs. of work per minute. In the Bengal Famine 

 operations of 1897 an average quantity of about 100 cubic ft. 

 of earth was raised 3 ft. during 6 hours and the weight of a 

 cubic ft. of earth being taken as 100 Ibs. the work done in 



, ., 100 x 100x3 

 6 hours was about 100 x 100 x 3 ft.-lbs. or, ^ ^ - =about 



