der cultivation, and an annual
exportation of $60,000,000. In all the coast regions rice is grown
universally, and also in the lower parts of the river plains,
especially in the Ganges valley. It is the staple food of the people
everywhere except on the higher levels. On the higher levels millet
and maize (corn) are the staple foods. The next important agricultural
product of India is COTTON, of which $47,000,000 worth in the raw
state is exported annually, besides what is used at home. The American
civil war was the great cause of the starting of the cotton-growing
industry in India. The next important agricultural product is JUTE, of
which the export in the raw state is about $35,000,000. No country in
the world can compete with India in the production of this fibre, for
jute is very exhaustive of the soil, and in the Ganges valley, where
it is principally raised, the soil is annually replenished by
alluvium. A fifth great agricultural product is TEA, in which India
now leads the world. England uses twice as much India tea as China
tea, the reason being that India teas are produced with all the
economic care of a high-class English or American manufactured
product. The value of the tea export of India is about $27,000,000.
Other chief agricultural products are OPIUM (which is a government
monopoly), oil seeds, hides, and skins, INDIGO (in which India excels
the world, the value of the export being $14,000,000), COFFEE (the
best grown anywhere--except perhaps that of Arabia and Java--though
the bean is sometimes injured in transit), raw wool, lac (for dyeing),
cinchona or Peruvian bark (which since it has been raised in India,
has greatly reduced the price of quinine), raw silk, raw sugar,
tobacco, and spices. Spices are produced abundantly in India, but
their quality is not equal to East Indian spices. Also the cotton,
rice, sugar, and tobacco of India, though produced plentifully, are
inferior in quality to those of the United States. Nor are the wheat
and corn of India so good as the wheat and corn of the United States
and Canada. Improved cultivation will, however, in time improve the
quality of all these products. Of exports of natural products not
agricultural the principal are WOOD (chiefly TEAK, the most valuable
timber known for ship-building, and sal, a most valuable wood for
carpentry) and saltpetre.

INDIA'S GROWING MANUFACTURES

Though India is now chiefly an agricultural country her people from
time im