214 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
lives, and the rapacity of the Zemeendar through 
whose covetousness he starves. This state of domestic 
misery among the tillers of the land in the most pro- 
ductive country upon earth, is the reason why so few 
improvements have been here made in husbandry, 
and why there is so much valuable land unappro- 
priated. There is no stimulus given to exertion, no 
encouragement to industry, no motive for improve- 
ment. The Zemeendar who takes advantage of the 
immediate necessities of the husbandman, is at no 
expense for tillage, for he buys the crops upon those 
terms which distress ever offers to a ready purchaser ; 
so that there really exists no motive to till beyond 
what the mere hope of obtaining the absolute neces- 
saries of life supplies. For these reasons agriculture 
is in a very imperfect state, and likely to continue so 
until there is some encouragement given to predial 
industry. The agriculturists in India are precisely 
in the same state they were centuries ago, nor can 
there be any substantial improvement until there is a 
change in the social system— until, in short, the con- 
dition of those who raise the crops is ameliorated and 
brought nearer to that of those who enjoy the fruits 
of the harvest. So prolific is the soil in this genial cli- 
mate, that it requires very little labour to render it 
productive ; yet more than half the country is a wil- 
derness. Thorns and briars usurp the supremacy of 
pulse and grain. The prickly pear scatters its rough 
tenacious arms over vast tracts of territory, where 
with little toil a plentiful harvest might be gathered 
in. There is no doubt that under an improved condi- 
tion of things, millions of acres, which now lie waste, 
