t '57 1 



niranies certain special forms of weeders (Fig. 35) called 

 Eureka Weeder, Hazeltine Weeder and Excelsior Weeder, 

 have been found very useful. 



FIG. 35. HAND-WEEDERS. 



198. Mowers and reapers are unsuitable for Indian farm- 

 ing. The machines are too heavy and expensive and the fields 

 in India are too small. Labour being cheap the harvesting sickle 

 must hold its own for a long time to come, as the cost of 

 harvesting is comparatively small. But there is no reason 

 why our labourers should not be trained to use the scythe, 

 which does far more work than the reaping hook (kachi or 

 kastta). 



199. Threshers. Steam-threshers are unsuitable for 

 Indian husbandry. But hand-threshers could be introduced 

 with success by middle-class men wishing to launch out in 

 farming. Even flailing is a better mode of separating the 

 grain from the straw than treading the corn by bullocks. 

 The bullocks voiding excrements on the straw and grain they 

 tread upon, the system is decidedly objectionable. Instead of 

 flails with wooden handles and leather thongs, flails could 

 be improvised of green bamboos about 8 feet long, ijft. of 

 which can be left cylindrical for the handle and the rest made 

 semicylindrical and cut into three strips. Only the ears of 



