INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

220 JfITIGATIVE MEASURES.
It should be cbeapened by every means possible-if
a duty is taken upon it, it should
be temporarily rescinded; in short, everything
should be done to tempt its exportation, and
thereby attract traffic to the country, whereby
imports of food would be possible. (2.) Of late
years, crops, such as indigo, opium, cotton,
sugar, &c., more lucrative than the food-crops,
have been introduced a good deal, and they in
a manner supplant the food-grains. The oftrecurring
years of drought should be remembered,
and encouragement be given to the production
of the latter. In years of plenty the
natural outlet would be exportation to foreign
conn tries. Though this, at first sight, may not
appear so profitable as the others, it is a question
whether it would not be so in the longrun.
At any rate, a disbursement of an occasional
£6,500,000 is an eveni so important as to
call for the consideration, whether a portion of
the sum could not be employed more profitably
than in direct mitigative measures.