SUBSIDIAEY INDUSTKIES 125 



many physical obstacles for the chemist, the botanist 

 and the engineer to surmount, but the value of their 

 assistance must be seriously discounted where the 

 obstacles which dominate the situation are economic ; 

 and this state of affairs must continue until the 

 economic difficulties are overcome. 



First let us consider the internal organisation of 

 the farm. The thing which strikes most observers is 

 that the Indian cultivator trusts too much to a single 

 crop, and that he has few subsidiary sources of 

 industry or income. The man who puts all his eggs 

 in one basket runs an obvious risk, but, apart from 

 that, such a system must tend to concentrate all the 

 farm work at certain seasons and to leave the farmer 

 with little to do at other times of the year. This is 

 what actually happens ; and, as a result, people are 

 always searching for some subsidiary industry with 

 which the farmer can fill up his spare time. If techni- 

 cal skill of a kind which is now conspicuously absent 

 can be developed, some use might be found for the 

 cultivator's spare time in working up the raw materials 

 of wood, bamboos or stone into finished products ; 

 but at present there is little movement in this direction, 

 and such work is mainly carried on by definite classes 

 of specialised workers. Attempts have been made to 

 get cultivators to take up unskilled work such as cotton 

 spinning by hand, but in view of the efficiency of spin- 

 ning mills such operations can be justified economically 

 only on the assumption that the cultivator now wastes 

 so much of his time that any work which he does, 



