CHAPTEE VI 



EQUIPMENT. 



It is not proposed to go into details with regard to 

 the implements and appliances with which the farmer 

 in western India carries on his operations. These 

 have been described in detail elsewhere.* It may, 

 however, be briefly stated that, apart from a cart, 

 their value is less than Rs.50 in the case of the 

 smaller cultivators. They are often ingenious and 

 certainly have the merit of being cheap ; but as 

 regards efficiency, the man who ploughs his field with 

 a log of wood and two weak bullocks finds himself, 

 when compared with the man who uses the imple- 

 ments and teams common in western countries, at as 

 great a disadvantage as the pedestrian is to the man 

 on a bicycle. It is sometimes said that the Indian 

 cultivator cannot afford to buy up-to-date implements, 

 but it is quite certain that he cannot afford to go 

 without them if he is to compete with the growers of 

 cotton, sugar-cane, oil-seeds and wheat in the more 

 advanced countries. The nature of the implements 



* " Rural Economy in the Bombay Deccan," Chapter X. (Long- 

 mans, 1912). 



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