18 On the Conditions of JVlieai-Oroicing in India. 
culture of the present day in India, mainly tlirougli the tempta- 
tions offered by the modem wheat trade. The pulses and 
oil-seeds all require a moderate amount of rain and heat, and 
therefore can be grown in every province of India. They 
cannot endure being swamped, and therefore are cultivated 
during the dryer seasons in the inundated areas; they cannot 
stand too much cold, and are therefore grown during the 
'ntermediately warm periods in Upper India. In other words, 
they cannot be gi-own, or only to a limited extent, during the 
periods when lice and wheat occupy the fields. This has given 
origin to the two crops rabi and Jiharif, to be subsequently re- 
ferred to. 
Thus, climatic necessities force a rotation of crops on the 
Indian cultivator, and hence it is by no means clear that the 
present wheat-cultivation is destroying the beneficial results 
from the cultivation of leguminous crops. Gram, besides, is 
very largely grown along with wheat, as a mixed crop, because 
shaded underneath the taller crop. The millets and pulses 
are much more the food-crops of the people of India, as a 
whole, than either wheat or rice, although in Bengal rice is 
the staple food, and in Upper India a large amount of wheat 
is daily consumed. Still, the people of India must have pulses 
and lentils, and these they will, and must, continue to grow. If 
one cultivator discontinues doing so, he will have to purchase 
his supplies. Prices of pulses would rise, and the balance be 
finally obtained, when it would become more profitable for him 
to resume pulse-cultivation than to continue to buy. Supply 
and demand must of necessity check a too extensive abandon- 
ment of pea-cultivation, and as oil-seeds are more profitable 
even than wheat, there would appear to be no danger of injury 
to the soil fi-om the cause suggested. 
Cro])s and Seasons. — The European farmer has but one season 
a year during which he can cultivate his field. The Indian culti- 
vator, at least in most districts, has two, known as rabi or spring 
han-est, and the liharif or autumn. The various staples grown 
during the former begin to be sown about the end of September, 
the sowings continuing till the end of December. They are reaped 
in two, three, four, or five months' time, viz, from December to 
May. The liharif staples, on the other hand, are sovm as soon 
as the land can be cleared of the rabi crops. Some of the sow- 
ings may take place as early as February or March, and the last 
sowings are made about the middle of August. The AV/e/vY' har- 
vest occurs chiefly between the beginning of October and the end 
of December. The labour of the agriculturist is mainly spent 
