agricultural improvements in this country of peace and plenty, where, in these days, famine never comes, and where farming is a business conducted on business principles, not the sole means of subsistence for the vast mass of the population. You will anticipate the general drift of my remarks when I say that I agree with those who hold that we have far more to learn from the Indian peasant about Indian agriculture than, even with the resources of science at command, we are at all likely, for some time to come, to be able to teach him. Reforms have been attempted the introduction of new crops, improvements in the methods of cultivating the ordinary crops of the country, the adaptation of English or other machinery to Indian conditions, and the breeding of cattle. Anything I might tell you under these heads would be a mere repetition of what is said in Part II. of the Report of the Famine Commission,' pp. 137-9. Of the important staples successfully introduced-viz., tea, coffee, the Mauritius sugar cane, New Orleans cotton, cinchona, and potatoes-it may, however, be interesting to mention, in connection with British trade, the areas now cultivated with coffee and tea. The coffee area has slightly contracted. It was some 121,000 acres in 1884-5, and some 118,000 in 1889-90. In the same period the area under tea has risen from nearly 130,000 acres to more than 250,000. In my own province, the Punjab, the breed of horses has certainly been improved within my recollection. For the rest, I will only say that the Indian agriculturist is well aware of the value of manure, but with reference to the vast distances that have to be traversed, and to some other considerations, either could not afford to buy or would be unwilling to use imported manures, while he wants a great part of his farmyard manure for fuel. There are many practical difficulties in the way of the employment of English ploughs and of deep ploughing; and expensive machines worked by steam, which could not be mended by village blacksmiths, are out of the question for peasant holders of small plots scattered in villages over the face of a vast, very primitive country. The most that can be said, I think, is that the Indian peasant may possibly plough deep, use more manure, and abstain from drenching the soil with all the water he can let on to it, when he is convinced that an alteration of practice in these respects will be profitable to himself in his lifetime. We have hitherto entirely failed to demonstrate to his satisfaction the pecuniary advantage of a change. Our efforts, too, in technical education in agriculture have not, so far, either reached or formed the practical farmer. They have merely resulted in a new brood of hungry aspirants for employment as officials. I hope that in the space I have at my disposal I have been able to make it sufficiently clear that in speaking of such a primitive country as India we cannot use such an expression as the development of agriculture in quite the same sense in which we apply it to the highly cultivated and civilised countries of Europe at the present day. Famine, it has been well said, is one of the diseases of the infancy of nations; and at present our best efforts are needed rather to prevent or mitigate that sudden and terrible deterioration of agriculture which is implied in famine than to convert the empiricism of a thousand generations to Western beliefs in scientific farming. I do not deny that to improve agricultural methods is a part of the means of famine prevention; but I would add that another disease of the infancy of nations is chronic war. To England, to this land of ours where there is indeed much poverty, famine, as I have said, never comes, pestilence but rarely, and we have almost forgotten that the fire and sword of the invader or freebooter were for centuries part of the ordinary lot of human kind. Those touching and familiar supplications for deliverance from plague, pestilence and famine, from battle and murder, and that peace may be given in our time, have happily lost here that sort of significance which attaches to an attempt to ward off evils known in all their bitterness by personal and recent experience. In India we are far nearer to the actual conditions of society which existed when that litany was framed upon which ours was largely modelled. In India we have given the land peace; and that is, indeed, one of the greatest of all agricultural improvements, as anyone knows well enough who has seen on or beyond the Indian northwest frontier armed men ploughing their fields, armed shepherds and graziers pasturing their flocks, and the village towers of refuge dotted about the village lands, lest perchance there should come some band of raiders too strong to be dealt with in the open plain. We have given the land peace and must maintain it. That alone is no light task. We must also decide justly those conflicting claims of various sections of the people which have arisen in part from the imposition of civilised rule upon primitive societies and in part from centuries of incessant violence and war; and we must be prepared to face pestilence and famine, and when they come, to do our best to mitigate their ravages. I do not say that in securing all this we should neglect agricultural chemistry and experimental farms. I only say that in promoting these means of agricultural improvement we must not forget their relative importance in view of some of the first duties which Indian Governments have to discharge. In India three important committees have lately assembled to consider agricultural affairs. A Bombay committee, which reported on July 8, 1890, recommended an increase in the number of experimental farms, the establishment of cattle farms, and an increased expenditure on seed for distribution and improved machinery and implements. The Madras Government on the 4th of the same month, reviewing the report of the Madras Committee, condemned in some lively sarcasms the operations of the past, noting that the amount of real good secured had been infinitesimal, and that the greater part of the money which had been spent on agricultural improvement and education in the Madras Presidency had been thrown away. A project was approved for the establishment of combined agricultural schools and farms at or near the headquarters of five representative districts, the College of Agriculture was to be maintained with some improvements in its course, and the branch of the Agricultural Department which dealt with cattle disease was to be abolished. The third committee was held in October 1890 under the presi dency of Sir Edward Buck. It was mainly the outcome of the mission of Dr. Voelcker, the agricultural chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, who was deputed to India by the Secretary of State to investigate the conditions under which action may usefully be taken in connection with agricultural experiments in that country. The Committee proposed the appointment of an agricultural chemist in India for a term of seven years; the maintenance in each province of a system of farms for inquiry and experiment; the better extension of primary education amongst the agricultural classes; and the combination of instruction in agriculture with the xisting course of instruction. In several of these matters past experience alone would hardly justify any sanguine expectation of great results. But let us trust that the sober and serious spirit of resolve to try again with more system and with a frank recognition of past mistakes-a spirit which, I think, may be said to characterise all these proceedings-may lead in course of time to improvements which will, at all events, beat the past record. I will venture to add a suggestion for the consideration of the authorities. More than a decade has now elapsed since. the submission of the Report of the Famine Commission. It contained a vast number of detailed proposals. I have not troubled you to-day with more than a very few of the leading heads, but I may mention that the second part of the report, dealing with measures of protection against famine and its prevention, suggests a great number of administrative changes, many of which have since come under separate consideration. I may instance the general organisation of the superior official staff-since the subject of the labours of the Public Service Commission; the relations of landlord and tenant; the assessment and collection of the land revenue; the indebtedness of the landed classes; the policy of Government in regard to railways and canals, emigration, and forest conservancy; and the encouragement of diversity in occupations. Would it not be a good employment for the next Agricultural Committee assembled in India to refer one by one to all the proposals in the second part of the report of the Famine Commission that were approved by the Secretary of State, and to report, for the information of Government and the public, what proposals have been carried out and in what manner, what still remain for consideration, and whether any of these should be taken up and put into execution now? As a study of Indian agricultural conditions and of the principal problems bearing upon agriculture in India, I do not think it likely that the report of the Famine Commissioners will, in this generation, be excelled; and I am sure all who have looked into that most valuable record will agree with me that very full justice should be done to the great knowledge of Indian life, character, physical surroundings, and possibilities which it displays throughout. Sir Edward Buck, in his address to the Committee of October last, was careful to point out that the gradual establishment of a sound system of scientific investigation and of education in connection with agriculture was the next point to be taken up in the approved programme of the Famine Commission. Without disputing that view or undervaluing in any way the possibilities of important additions to knowledge and of improvement which may result from the employment of a first-class expert, I merely wish to draw attention to the wider measure of a general examination at this date of the scheme of the Famine Commission considered as a whole. The remarks made in this paper have necessarily been slight, and have dealt much more with the conditions of Indian agriculture than with the connection between Indian agriculture and British trade. I hope that part of the subject will be more fully discussed by other speakers. If such an examination of the views of the Famine Commission as I have here suggested be undertaken in India within the next two or three years, the time spent on this paper will not, I trust, prove to have been altogether thrown away. I will, in conclusion, refer to one proposal made by the Famine Commissioners which, I think, might be revived with advantage. At present members of the Indian Civil Service are forbidden to hold land in the provinces where they are employed. No doubt it is undesirable that Indian Civil Servants should farm for profit. They must not be distracted from their official duties or have interests that might clash with those duties, or be even open to suspicion of irregularities in dealings with tenants or labourers or traders in produce. But these objections would hardly apply to district officers permitted to hold small areas of 50 or 100 acres on lease for purposes of recreation and experiment. If this permission were given to the comparatively few who would care to have it, a good deal of practical experience of much value might be accumulated. STATEMENT A.-Cultivated Area. 1884-5 21,331,674 25,966,024 22,244,943 8,764,086 22,553,701 125,955,122 1885-6 22,463,253 25,424,532 25,102,975 8,819,063 20,512,118 128,282,535 1886-7 23,004,643 26,355,920 25,466,869 8,801,909 18,387,661 128,316,277 1887-8 23,326,272 26,352,865 25,244,378 8,828,303 20,586,028 131,231,180 1888-9 23,157,408 26,928,859 24,829,969 8,857,670 20,720,695 134,653,056 1889-90 23,797,036 28,088,955 25,123,483 8,873,699 19,407,513 136,168,899 1885-6 5,815,378 2,440,620 5,820,559 1,928,068 6,635,951 1886-7 5,999,922 2,305,974 5,568,943 2,269,446 6,555,592 1887-8 6,234,432 2,417,836 6,208,299 2,448,267 6,990,682 1888-9 6,231,358 2,835,375 6,232,092 2,496,996 7,379,293 1889-90 6,398,285 3,363,024 6,693,541 2,507,510 7,487,483 23,098,822 23,250,530 24,936,091 26,343,519 27,722,441 The miles shown in this statement are canal miles of 5,000 feet. 1 British, 126,290; Native States, 48,910. Total, 175,200. |