confidence by their fellow-countrymen. They
would suspect that self-interest was at the back of their advice, and
the chemical manure which they recommended would, on that account, be
distrusted. Hence, at present, a good many of the lecturers, and even
some of the inspectors who are to travel in the districts to advise
and assist the farmers in agricultural matters, have to be Englishmen.
But it is hoped that their places will gradually be taken by those
Indians whom they are now instructing.

Although farmers all the world over are conservative and opposed to
novelties, they generally end by adopting improvements when they have
realised that they are remunerative. Yerandawana village being close
to Poona City, the farmers can procure for their land the street
sweepings, which are sold by the municipality at so much a load. The
farmers see the difference between land which has been manured and
that which has not. They spend, what is to them, large sums of money
on this litter, and they do so readily because they find that they are
abundantly repaid by the increase in their crops. Street sweepings and
city litter can, of course, only be procured in the immediate vicinity
of large towns, and it is limited in quantity, so that this kind of
manure does not go far in enriching the impoverished Indian soil. If
farmers are able to see that chemical manure produces the same result
as the litter, it is reasonable to suppose that in process of time
they would be equally ready to buy the new agent.

Sugar cane is undoubtedly the most beautiful in appearance of all
Indian crops; and when the cane is being converted into raw sugar,
this is one of the most animated rural sights. The process takes place
in the open air in a corner of the field itself, or else close by.
Although it involves plenty of work and all is stir and bustle, it is
a time which the workers enjoy. They encamp on the spot, and it is a
sort of prolonged picnic.[3]

[Footnote 3: The process has been fully described in _Indian
Jottings_, p. 253.]

It is a pleasant custom amongst the sugar-cane growers to invite
little parties of friends to come to the plantation to drink the
fresh juice, and other uninvited guests are apt to stroll round in the
hope of getting something. The code of hospitality amongst Indians
being such a liberal one, even the palpable cadgers are not sent away
empty. Apparently every visitor to any garden must be made to take
away some tangi