THE OBSTACLE OF POVEKTY 183 



ments that their efforts are severely handicapped and 

 the results of their labours heavily discounted by the 

 economic obstacles which stand in their way. Some 

 people appear to think that these obstacles are in- 

 surmountable. Sir Henry Cotton * writes as follows : 

 " Our attempts to teach the natives of India agri- 

 culture are based upon a f orgetf ulness of the essential 

 elements of the case. The native cultivators of India 

 are too poor to be able to adopt the scientific improve- 

 ments which English experience suggests. They are 

 told to plough deeper, to do more than scratch the 

 soil. But it is forgotten that the cattle with which 

 they plough are incapable of deep ploughing. We 

 tell them to enrich their fields with manure, and that 

 the produce of the land would be augmented by its 

 use. No doubt it would. The ryots do utilise 

 manure as much as they possibly can, in the way of 

 simple forms of manure, such as cow-dung — which, 

 is, however, also an extremely useful article to the 

 poor cultivator as a substitute for fire-wood — but they 

 can no more afford to procure the expensive manures 

 with which we are so familiar than they can afford 

 to plough with elephants." Now there are state- 

 ments of fact made in this quotation which do not 

 entirely accord with the realities of the situation in 

 western India. But even accepting the facts as 

 stated above, are we to agree with Sir H. Cotton in 

 fearing that the poverty of the people obtrudes as a 



* "New India," by Sir Henry Cotton (Kegan Paul, 1907). 



