1 
20 On the Conditions of Wheat-Growing in India. 
heai'd against this practice ; but in tlie majority of cases the 
native cultivator is perfectly sound in the course he pursues. 
As a peculiarity of the people of India, it may be added 
that — whether it be the cause or the consequence of this 
practice of mixing grains — gram and wheat, and barley and 
wheat are eaten mixed, and indeed often preferred to pure 
grain. Where the cultivator does not grow the mixture, the 
retail meixhant effects it ; but in few cases has it been shown 
that the cultivator mixes for the purpose of defrauding. He 
is not responsible for the market to which the dealer consigns 
his produce. He grows a mixture because it is in requisition 
for a market which, after all, is infinitely more extensive than 
the modern foreign demand. Adulteration is undoubtedly 
practised — but little more can be laid to the blame of the actual 
producer than that sufficient attraction has not as yet been 
offered to induce him to adopt more expensive processes for 
obtaining a wheat that would be free from the dirt incident to 
a primitive system of thrashing, winnowing, and storing. 
To convey some idea of the character of Indian agriculture, 
it seems desirable to furnish in this place a table showing the 
chief rahi and Jcharif crops grown in four of the wheat-pro- 
ducing provinces. A critical inspection of the dates of sowing 
and reaping will demonstrate what we have tried to establish — 
viz. that there are influences (over which the cultivator has 
little control) which preclude a greatly extended displacement 
of the food-stuffs of the mass of the people, either by wheat or 
by any other remunerative article of export trade. These same 
influences prescribe a certain rotation of crops every twelve 
months. But we shall have occasion later on to show that a 
more extensive rotation than this is very frequently pursued. 
The table opposite will establish that, with few exceptions (e.g. 
the pulse of the rabi season), the greatly extended cultivation 
of wheat would not effect the preservation of the balance of the 
soil, through the growth of peas and other leguminous crops in 
alternation with cereals. It will be seen that cotton cuts more 
seriously into the millet and pulse season than wheat, since that 
staple occupies the soil, on an average, from June to January, 
or even February. 
llunning the eye down the two columns for each province, 
it will at once be apparent what crops might interfere with 
wheat extension, and might therefore be liable to displacement. 
But by recalling what has been said about the nature of the 
soils, a safeguard will be obtained against a too literal inter- 
pretation of the effects of the dates of sowing and reaping. It 
does not follow that a crop which is shown by the table to 
occupy fields during tho period of wheat-cultivation, is being 
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