The White Farmer's Rival

Southland Times, Issue 11899, 21 November 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

The White Farmer's Rival

In one of his papers in tke Age on Indian irrigation Mr Alfred Deakin §ayi :— Many fairly competent critics comider the Hindu on expert irrigator in diitricti in which the practice is mor* than 30 years old as well as a competent farmer, and this ie undoubtedly true, if the one gn»nt qualification be added, .that the ezpertneis is beet attainable by a labourer without capital, implementi, or machinery. Remembering the part that thtse play in modern farming, the severity of the limitation imposed by their t exclusion will be rightly estimated. A;, moment* reflection will show how unreasonable it would be to cherish large expectations of enlightenment in the art of irrigation at the handi of the varied Hindu races in their several stages of civilisation, who, whatever their intellectual achievements in other spheres and in other ages, have never paid attention to the applied science?, and have remained from the days of Manu down to the present time, dependent upon an agriculture which is but one remove from savagery, The Aztecs under MonUzuma were, and the E«d Indians of the Southern .States of Western America, or the Fijians and Samoans in the South Beaa are, as advanced in their systems of cultivation as the bulk of the Hindus today. With a philosophy that has amszed Europe, a poetry that has outshone that of all Asiatic peoples except the Hebrew, an architecture without a rival in iti own s'yle, and hand loom manufactures whose qualify surpasses that of the finest machinery in the beat factories in the world," its farming has remained in an Egyptian stage, and in Egyptian darkness, so far as modern science or modern implements are concerned. In the refinements of metaphysics, the Hinrius forestalled the nintteenth century, while in their agriculture they have remained in the condition of primitive man. Bquatted upon his ham», clad in a wai.tclotb, aod oft<n without vest or tnrbar, the Hindu peasant bends over his irrigating channel, and repairs its breaches with deft tad even hand. The many channels which diverge from the hole out of which he either bales his water, or, if it be deeper, raises it by a pole and counterpoise, or draws it by bullocks, are often built up a foot and 18 inches, and sometimes more, out of the stiff soil. Upon these c arrow ridges little rills of water are carried to all parts of the field. The whole of them appear to have been built by the almost unassisted hand, as urchins make mud pies. The tool for directing the water ia bat a piece of itick, and thus the whole of the watering is provided and managed by the ryot's palms and fingers and those of his wife and family The burned, sharp-poiDted staff and cross branch, which compose his plough, with an old dish-shaped basket or two for removing the soil, and a chopping hoe, comprise the whole of his workiDg plsnt for cultivation and irrigation. Hewill stand ud to his knees in water allday among hii rice fields, and (oil tke whole 12 months through for a bare subsistence, but he will be very loath to try a new experiment, will never make a purchase, except on extremity, eitkei of an improved seed or implement, and will cling to traditional ways so long ss he can find the slightest pretext for juitifyirjg then?. There is but one word for his style of work, and that is ' slovenly.' His dams of stakes and rice straw generally leak, and occasionally give way, but he will probably build the next on exactly the sane plan, and there is never any attempt at finish in any of bis contrivances- The hardness of his lot and the meagreness of his opportunities no doubt largely account for these failing*, but certainly the same conditions prevent him from idleness. He almost lives in his fields, will cheerfully receive and distribute his share of water all night, if need be, will watch the trickling supply with inexhaustible patience, and guide it with a dexterity born of loop , experience. Heie his part in the irrigation ] begins aDd ends. Whence and how the supply c came to him, or where his drainage will How are matters in wh : ch he exhibits not the 1 faintest concern. A timid, induEtriour, inoffensive, domestic, gossiping hind, he exists mentally in as narrow a plot as that upon which he works ; his little horizon everywhere bounded by extravagant legend, absurd superstition, and implacable fear*, Living in abject poverty, material and intellectual, the little cuDning he has acquired in dealing with his crops peiUius solely to the state of nature in which he lives and worki.