[Illustration: Comparative sizes of India and the United States.]
The real wealth of India lies in the luxuriance and economic value of
its VEGETATION. As a consequence the principal industry is
AGRICULTURE. Only one tenth of the people live in towns. Two thirds of
the adult males in the country are engaged wholly in tilling the soil.
Every sort of agricultural product known to commerce is raised in
India; for from the high levels on the mountain sides to the low
levels on the coasts the vegetation of the whole world is produced
within its borders. Even in WHEAT India competes in the world's
markets with countries like Russia and Argentina. In 1896 British
India had 19,000,000 acres of wheat under cultivation, and (though a
dearth year) an exportation of $4,000,000. In 1892 the exportation was
$25,000,000. The district known as the Central Provinces of India has
become one of the most important wheat areas in the world. But the
principal agricultural product of India is RICE. British India alone
has 70,000,000 acres of rice under 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.