4 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



should be a means of helping, in a very practical way, the 

 ordinary or improved agriculture of this country. I wish, 

 therefore, to attract, from provincial agricultural colleges 

 and from other colleges, students of high class ability who 

 have been reared on the land. 



Many of such students are usually poor and cannot 

 afford the expense of an advanced course in research work. 

 Government have spent of late years large sums on the de- 

 velopment of agriculture, and I am confident that Indian 

 gentlemen generally interested in the work will do their 

 share. There is perhaps no direction in which there is 

 more scope for liberality of the most useful kind than in 

 the founding of scholarships for students at Pusa. 



I refer below to some of the work done in each section 

 at Pusa and by the Cotton Specialist. A full review of 

 each report is not required here. 



Agriculture.— M.V. E. Shearer, Imperial Agriculturist, 

 has done much useful work for the Department. He was 

 absent on privilege leave from 2nd July to 30th September 

 1908, when his duties were carried on by the Director. 



Permanent manurial and rotation experiments were 

 laid down last year on two blocks of 9 acres each. The 

 land selected for these experiments has been tested and 

 found sufficiently uniform for the purpose. 



Permanent pasture experiments were laid down in the 

 monsoon of 1907. It is very important to know the best 

 conditions in various parts of India under which pastures 

 can, on practical lines, be properly established and improv- 

 ed. This is the aim of the Pusa experiments, and it is 

 believed that the results will be of very wide application, 

 especially as similar grass experiments have been under- 

 taken in some provinces. Already there is a decided 

 change in the character of the hcrl)age in some of the 

 manured plots at Pusa. 



Arable areas which are likely to be suitable for the 

 extension of experimental work in the future, are being 

 treated uniformly in regard to cultivation and cropping. 



