CHAPTER VIII.

THE FAMINE IN 1878.

THE extent to which the famine extended into the year 1878 may be estimated by the following figures:

In the month of February something like a scare was experienced. Sir Michael Kennedy, in a letter written to Mr. Stewart Bayley, C.S.I., Personal Assistant (famine) to the Viceroy, referred to a reaction which had set in, and the fear which was experienced that distress of an acute kind would once more occur. This letter was published in some of the Calcutta newspapers. It was in exact accordance with the information received by the Executive Committee of the Relief Fund. For once in Indian history, official and non-official reports were in harmony. It was believed that Southern India was on the threshold of another famine, not perhaps quite so disastrous as that of 1876-77, but still sufficiently widespread to cause the greatest possible concern. The grounds for this opinion were to be found by taking

a glance backwards over a few months, and noting the progress of events, which seemed to lead to but one conclusion, viz., the continuance and deepening of distress. In August 1877, when the land should have been undergoing resuscitation through the influence of a damp and cloudy atmosphere and drenching night dews, the air was abnormally dry, and preparation of the ground for the reception of seed was impossible. In September and October soaking rains fell, and the utmost possible haste was exhibited by agriculturists to plough the land and put in seed. But in a vast number of cases implements were wanting, bullocks were dead, and the means of providing them were few or altogether non-existent. Owing to unforeseen difficulties, it was nearly the end of October before the relief committees were able to distribute money to destitute. ryots for seed grain and purchase of bullocks. Meanwhile, in a manner not easy to describe, branches of trees were drawn across the soil as a substitute for ploughing; men, instead of cattle, were yoked to ploughs. The people had endeavoured to plough and sow their lands, and the result was this. At a much later period than usual the fields were prepared and sown. The preparation was even more defective than usual. What that means, those acquainted with Indian agriculture can imagine. Much of the seed was bad, having been kept eighteen months; numbers of families had starved, but those who remained had preserved some seed corn wherewith to 'try again' when seasonal rains arrived. In a great many cases, owing to the excessive wetness of the soil, the seed rotted, and sowing had to be repeated two or three times. Then, when the green tender blade did push its way through the earth and the labourer went cheerfully to his task of weeding and nurturing the plants of promise, an army of locusts which no man could number covered large stretches of country and ate up every green thing.

APPREHENSIONS OF REACTION.

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From places so far apart as Nellore and Tinnevelly the same reports regarding mischief done were received. An American gentleman in the south described this visitation in most graphic language; the solid earth seemed in motion, so great were the numbers of these insects; compounds and fields appeared as if they had been scorched with devastating fires after the pests had passed. The consequence of all these things was that, when in February the new crops of dry grain, cholum, cumboo, raggi, &c., should be taken to market in large quantities, reducing the high prices of food, none was available. The lateness of the season was not alone to blame for this; it was not that a few weeks hence the granaries would once more be filled; it was that there was no grain to bring to market. The reports from the districts were most disheartening. In some cases the yield was so poor that only enough produce was expected to be reaped as would suffice for seed at the next sowing (such worthless seed, the remnants of disease and pestilence!) and till that period, and till the crops were harvested, say in September following, at the earliest, the people must be provided with work and food. The report from Salem-the writer being a Bengal civilian, assistant to the collector, a man by no means given to the expression of alarmist views-may be taken as a specimen of the opinions formed by those in the districts. He reported as follows:- The situation is decidedly more gloomy than was anticipated at the commencement of the year. The dry crops have been disastrous failures, owing to the excessive rain, all which generated leaf at the expense of produce. Accounts from the west of the Salem taluk and the south of the district generally, place the harvest at hardly more than a fourth of an average out-turn.

The rice crop-nowhere important save in the

tract on the banks of the Cauvery is estimated at 10 annas of an average harvest (16 annas).

'The condition of the cultivator is deplorable in the extreme; his stocks exhausted, and his purchasing power reduced enormously by successive calamities.

'Help is urgently needed to enable him to purchase seed grain and to maintain his family till the next harvest, unhappily far distant.'

A subsequent report was couched in similar strains, whilst a fortnight previously the same gentleman had indicated to Government the necessity for relief works being provided. The Madras Times of February 6 said: We had the opportunity, a week ago, of conversing with many of the delegates from the districts who attended the meeting in the Banqueting Hall, and we were grieved almost beyond expression at the dead level of dolefulness which marked the descriptions of the state of the country given by each and all of them. We have been informed by a gentleman who attended the meeting of the executive relief committee on Monday evening that that meeting was the most melancholy one that had been held. Reports of a most dismal character were read, showing the necessity for relief being continued for many months, while the committee found their funds were nearly gone, having been spent in mitigating the sufferings of a previous disaster. Speaking roughly, we believe we are perfectly safe in saying that the dry grain crops have been more or less a failure in the district of Bellary; a gentleman from the chief town of that district told us last week that they could not suspend their relief operations in the beginning of February, as they had hoped ; they have failed in a portion of Nellore; Cuddapah has suffered to some extent; from North Arcot we have no definite intelligence; Chingleput is already suffering; South Arcot, distress likely to be very bad; Salem,

FAILURE OF DRY GRAIN CROPS.

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distress already great; Coimbatore, not at all good; Madura, suffering from excessive rain. So far we have referred only to failure in dry grain crops, but in these seasons of disaster the wet crops, hitherto unaffected, have been visited by a pest or blight, and we hear of fields withering whilst covered with water.' 'Wandering' on the part of starving poor again commenced. Families from the country were once more to be seen on the main roads leading into Madras. People were searching for employment. A body of twenty or thirty persons waited upon the deputy commissioner of police in Madras, and said they wanted work; they had had no food for days, they wanted means to earn a living. They were referred to the collector of Chingleput, but they replied that Mr. Barlow had been seen, and he said he had no works to send them to. Prices also remained abnormally high. When the rains fell in September 1877, imports ceased. Food stocks could not be replenished from the fields in the Presidency, for they, instead of being white unto harvest,' were withered and dying. The very land seemed curst.'

Such was the situation in February. Soon after, particulars were published of sore distress which was the necessary consequence of such a state of things as is described above.

The following carefully authenticated story will serve to show the ravages of disease induced by want. in 1878. Three women (sisters) had married three brothers, and they and their families all lived in one large house, Hindu and patriarchal fashion. The whole household, on January 1, 1878, numbered forty-eight persons. Their crops failed, their money was gone, their credit was nil. They tried to live on seeds, leaves, &c., and, as a consequence, cholera attacked them, and thirty died from this disease. Fifteen others expired