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CHAPTER XXV.
Agriculture, Manufacture and Architecture—Wheat Growing—The Farm
Laborer—His Condition, Implements, etc. The
Taj-Mahal—Jugglers-Snake Charmers—From My Journal.
A large majority of the Hindoos are agriculturists. The
staple crops are wheat, rice, and different species of pease.
The wheat production of India exerts a great influence on
the grain market of Europe, and is one of the most
dangerous competitors to our American wheat. Having been ordered
by the United States government to report on the wheat
growing of India, I made this a special object of
investigation and study, and in December, 1882, sent a report to the
government in Washington which is our first reliable
information on that subject; it elicited a great deal of attention,
and was a source of genuine surprise in this country. I
submit a few extracts from this report:
The annual wheat production of India now reaches two hundred and
forty million bushels, of which two hundred million may be exported, while
the natives make their bread from other kinds of grain. The total area
devoted to wheat each year is now a little over twenty million acres, and
the best average yield is thirteen and one-half bushels j)er acre. Wheat
growing is now receiving the special attention of the general and local
governments, and important works arc being made and projected for an
extensive system of canal irrigation. One of these, the Sirhind canal in the
Punjab, has just been completed ; it was built mainly by prison labor, isfive
hundred and two miles long, and will irrigate seven hundred and eighty
thousand acres through two thousand five hundred milesof minor channels.
The wheat is sown in the autumn and harvested in March or April; it is
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