Feb,  I,  1897.) 
thp:  tropical  agriculturist 
529 
They  work  only  three  or  four  clays  a v/eek, 
for  though  the  employer  is  obliged  by  law  to  liud 
them  work,  or  at  all  events,  pay  them,  should 
they  desire  to  work  six  days,  they  never  do  de- 
sire it.  Even  when  crop  is  ripe  and  all  hands 
are  needed,  it  is  useless  to  appeal  to  them  to 
“turn  out”  one  extra  day.  No  1 their  few  wants 
can  be  supplied  l>y  four  days’  work,  and  their 
philosopliy  inculcates  no  work  not  actually 
necessary.  As  for  “next  year,”  or  a “rainy 
day,”  “well,  ‘Sammie  poorium,’  or  ‘ the  Lord 
may  provide  ! ’ but,  we  ‘ count  not  our  troubles 
before  they  come,” 
This  picture  is  one  of  a Ceylon  tea  plantation 
and  from  such  leaf  as  is  observable  in  the  bask- 
ets above,  is  made  by  wiac/ifuccv/ the  famous  new 
and  pure  teas  of  Ceylon  and  India,  which  have 
supplanted  the  coloured  and  adulterated  hand- 
made teas  of  China  and  Japan,  in  nearly  all  the 
tea  markets  of  the  world.  W.McK. 
“Hard  Labour  in  the  Tropics”  is  an  answer 
to  assertions  made  in  U.S.A.  that  coolies  are 
slaves. 

WHEAT:— INDIA’S  SCARCITY— AMERICA'S 
OPPORTUNITY. 
The  rapid  rise  in  the  price  of  wheat  has  come 
as  a surprise,  as  well  as  a blessing,  to  the 
thousands  of  western  farmers,  who  have  been 
struggling  for  years  against  dwindling  prices, 
and  who  were  told  by  Bryan  and  other  silver 
blatherskites  that  no  rise  of  any  consecjuence 
was  possible  until  silver  was  placed  on  a par 
with  gold.  Or  in  other  words,  until  these 
honorable  gentlemen  were  empowered  by  Law 
to  pay  their  household  bills  of  iflOO.OO  with 
$60.00. 
Short  crops  in  Europe,  locusts  in  the  Argen- 
tine and  drought  in  Australia,  have  all  helped 
to  stimulate  the  upward  trend  of  prices  of  grain. 
But  the  chief  factor  has  undoubtedly  been  the 
dry  weather  anfl  water  famine  in  the  Northern, 
Midille  and  Western  Provinces  of  India.  From 
being  an  exporting  country,  India  has  sudden- 
ly and  unexpectedly  become  an  importer  of 
wheat. ' True,  the  imports  have  not  as  yet  been 
large,  and  it  is  to  be  devoutly  hoped  they  will 
not  become  so  ; — as  that  would  mean  that 
famine,  with  all  its  dire  consequences,  had 
overtaken  its  peaceful  and  industrious  popula- 
tions of  an  ancient  and  interesting  country. 
To  us,  good  Americans,  who  aie  in  the  h.abit 
of  regarding  the  west  as  the  most  marvellous 
portion  of  the  Earth,  the  word  India  is  as 
Mesopotamia.  We  think  of  it  only  as  a vast 
country  which  good  old  “John  Bull”  has  ex- 
ploited to  his  own  advantage,  rather  than  for 
the  good  of  the  teeming  millions  of  many  Races 
and  Religions  who  inhabit  it.  “ John’s”  bold 
and  adventurous  seadogs,  who  pursued  the  Spa- 
nish, French  and  Dutch  explorers  into  all 
parts  of  the  new  Continents  and  Islands  dis- 
covered in  the  16th  and  17th  Centuries,  and 
by  dint  of  hard  knocks,  marauding  and  pri- 
vateering, generally  succeeded  in  reaping 
where  others  had  sown,  have  left  him  a legacy 
of  a bad  name,  which  bis  many  good 
deeds  since,  have  failed  to  eradicate. 
But  let  us  think  fora  moment  of  what  “John” 
has  done  in  India.  Unless  it  be  the  astonishing 
one  of  his  own  recent  success  in  Egypt,  with 
administrators  trained  in  India,  we  douob  if  the 
history  of  the  world  cm  furnish  a similar  in- 
stance of  improvement  in  the  internal  Govern- 
ment of  a nation. 
A hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  India,  far 
from  being  a homogeneous  nation,  as  the  one 
name  for  all  of  it  would  imply,  contained  as  many 
different  countries,  rulers,  races  and  religions,  as 
our  great  republic  has  states.  The  nations  were 
constantly  at  war  with  each  other :— the  robu.st 
and  Wailike  tribes  of  the  North-west  and  moun- 
atinousj  regions,  annually  devastated  some  por- 
tions of  the  great  plains  and  fertile  valleys  of  the 
Indus  and  Ganges,  whose  lazy,  cowardly  and 
cringing  inhabitants  seldom  offered  any  resis- 
tance. Besides  these,  what  might  be  called — 
invasions  by  neighbouring  nations—  bands  of  well 
armed  robbers  called  Dacoits,  roamed  at  will 
over  the  continent  of  India,  burning,  pillaging 
and  ravaging  without  check  or  restraint. 
At  that  time  “John”  or  “.John  Company” 
as  he  was  called,  was  a peaceful  trader  in  Cal- 
cutta. To  defend  himself  from  a repetition  of 
the  awful  tragedy  of  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta, 
he  had  to  arm  some  defendants  and  to  fortify 
some  territory  beyond  the  walls  of  that  city. 
From  this  small  beginning,  “John”  was  liter- 
ally forced  in  self-defence  by  the  incessant  attacks 
of  barbarous  neighbours  on  his  everwidening 
frontiers,  to  annex  and  occupy  province  after 
province,  until  his  strong  but  peaceful  sway  has 
made  life  and  property  safer  in  a vast  region 
containing  300,000,600  of  people,  than  they  are 
now,  in  our  United  States. 
This  population  too  has  doubled  during  the 
last  100  years,  and  there  seems  to  be  no 
limit  to  lbs  extension.  Before  the  reign  of 
“John,”  internal  wars,  consequent  famines,  with 
their  never  failing  attendants.  Cholera  and  Pesti- 
lence, kept  down  the  i)opulation.  By  roads,  canals 
and  railways,  besides  suppressing  wars  and  Jacob 
try,  “John”  has  to  a great  extent  put  an 
end  to  famines. 
When  rains  fail  and  crops  are  short,  relief 
works  are  started,  wells  are  dug,  and  food  is 
purchased  and  poured  inco  the  threatened  pro- 
vince.  Pestilence  is  combated  by  science,  for 
doctors,  dispensaries  and  hospitals  abound.  The 
consequence  is  that  population  increases  with  tro- 
liical  rapidity. 
Without  the  aid  of  immigration,  the  increase 
is  actually,  not  comparatively  greater  than  that 
of  the  United  States.  And  When  the  last  trum- 
pet sounds,  and  “John”  is  asked,  “What  of 
thy  brother?”  he  can  point  to  the  vast  increase 
of  a native  race  under  his  sway.  But  what  an- 
swer have  we  to  give  as  regards  the  Red  man, 
the  Spanish  of  the  Mexicans,  or  the  Australians 
of  their  dusky  predecessors  ? 
As  already  indicated,  it  is  in  the  northern 
middle  and  north-western  provinces  of  India  that 
wheat  is  the  staple  food.  Rice  is  the  mainstay 
of  the  Ijast,  Central  and  Southern  Provinces, 
known  .as  Madras  and  Travancore.  In  the  north- 
east provinces  it  has  been  many  years  since  the 
government  has  been  called  upon  to  find  food 
and  work  for  the  people  because  of  famine. 
The  Indigo  lields  employ  many  ; numerous 
factories  are  working  with  large  gangs  of  natives* 
.and  the  Tea  In  lustry  which  has  sprung  up  lik  • 
a Gigantic  Exhalation  gives  work  to  1’iumlreds 
of  thousands  of  laborers  from  the  congested  dis- 
tricts. To  give  some  idea  of  the  strides  made  by 
tea,  it  will  be  enough  t.)  say,  that  where  India 
a few  years  ago  impurte  l tea  from  China,  it  now 
not  only  supplies  its  own  wants  but  will  export 
about  150,000,000  ])ounds  ihis  year. 
In  Southern  Imlia  actu.al  famine  is  rare,  as 
is  a very  ancient,  extensive  and  elaborate 
system  of  irrigation.  Thg  people  of  Southern 
