INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

210 PREVENTIVE AND
1865-66. Orissa and part of Western Bengal
; food reached eight and
ten times, and in particular
places thirty and thirty·five
times, the ,ordinary price, and
was not procurable for money
in many places,
6 years."
The Orissa Famine Commissioners continue;
"It will be seen that, with comparatively
small exception, the same area has .never been
twice very severely affected in the last 40 or
50 years; while many provinces, which are
equally liable to the calamity, have not sufi'ere(l
during this time.
" But if we look to the greater famines of a
more far-spreading character, both the cycle of
periodicity and the areas of their range are very
much larger: the differenc.is almost like that
between comets of the smallest and those of a
very large. orbit. The great famines occur in
successive centuries; instead of 5, 10, or 15, wr
may say at intervals of 50, 100, and 150 years."
Such conclusions are of course of no practical
value. We cannot prepare any special
preventive measures on the chance of a famine
recurring on this basis of calculation. Weare