146 THE HUMAN FACTOE 



that whole classes of cultivators who formerly used 

 to do their own field work have now ceased to take 

 any active part in field operations. This is said of 

 the Patidarsin Gujarat, of the better class Lingayets, 

 in the southern Maratha country, of the Havigs in 

 Kanara, and of the more substantial cultivators every- 

 where. So also with the smaller proprietors. Many 

 a man who formerly supported himself on his hold- 

 ing during part of the year and was glad to work 

 for hire in the off-season, now finds that he can get 

 on without the latter source of income, and keeps 

 out of the labour market altogether unless excep- 

 tionally high wages in the neighbourhood of his home 

 tempt him to forgo his hot weather holiday. 



Even in years of serious and widespread crop 

 failure there is hardly any demand for work at famine 

 wages for which only twenty years ago there was 

 such a desperate rush. It is even asserted by careful 

 observers that the keenness of the cultivators to grow 

 cotton is due not only to the fact that they can 

 usually make good profits from it, but also to the fact 

 that it is an easy crop to grow and leaves them plenty 

 of leisure, and it is argued that, for this reason, they 

 will continue to grow it in preference to other crops 

 which yield them a better return, and to sow the same 

 fields year after year to cotton, without any rotation 

 of crops, although they know that this constitutes 

 bad agricultural practice. A competent and ex- 

 perienced critic of agriculture in Gujarat, Mr. 

 Gulabhai N. Desai, makes some interesting com- 



