8 cents, as did also
the women with babies strapped on their backs, who nevertheless toiled
as steadily as the others.

"As for the men I pay these strong, brawny Bhutia fellows 8 annas (16
cents) a day," the contractor told me, "but those Nepalese who are not
so strong get only 5 annas for shovelling earth."

Director of Agriculture Couchman of the Madras Presidency gave me the
following as the usual scale of wages for farm work: men 6 to 8 cents;
women 4 to 6; children 3 to 5, the laborers boarding themselves.

With this Mr. Couchman, whom I have just mentioned, I had a very
interesting interview in Madras which should shed some light on Indian
agriculture.

"In Madras Presidency," he told me, "we cultivate 10,000,000 acres of
rice, which is the favorite food of the people. As it is expensive
compared with some cheaper foods, however, the people put 4,500,000
acres to a sort of sorghum--not the sorghum cultivated for syrup or
sugar but for the seed to be used as a grain food--and also grow
4,000,000 acres of millet the seed of which are used as a grain food."

"Then we grow 2,000,000 acres in cotton, but cotton in India is grown
only on black soils. We want some for red soils, and we are also
seeking to increase the yield and the length of staple in the
indigenous varieties. In both these points the Indian cotton now
compares very badly with the American. Our average yield is only about
50 to 100 pounds lint per acre, and the staple is only three quarters
to five eights of an inch in length, and not suitable for spinning
over 20s in warp."

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[Illustration: BURNING THE BODIES OF DEAD HINDUS.]

[Illustration: AN INDIAN CAMEL CART.]

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[Illustration: TRAVEL IN INDIA.]
How the author and his friends made the trip from Jeypore to Amber

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"Of course, with our dense population, land is high and our system of
farming expensive. Good irrigated wet land, used chiefly for rice, is
worth from $166 to $500 per acre, renting for $20 to $25; dry land
sells for $17 to $133 per acre and rents for from $3 to $5. It is
commonly said that a man and his family should make a living on two
acres, and the usual one-man farm consists of 5 to 10 acres of wet
land or 30 to 50 of dry. The wet land farmers are generally renters,
the others owners. Of course, you have noticed that no horses are used
on the farms, nothing but bullocks; nor do I think that horses will be
used for a long time to come. We a