54 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 2, 1883. 



The proceeds, at one pice a cane, was nearly eleven 

 rupees. The height of the tallest cane was 1-5 feet 8 inches. 

 The expenses of the shpsfor planting was seven annas; 

 laboiu-, three rupees ; propping the canes by bamboos and 

 ropes, about eight annas — in all, some foui' rupees; so 

 that the clear profit was nearly seven rupees. 



A few words towards the conclusion of this paper may 

 not be out of place, in connection ivith the possibilities 

 of impr^'.^ns agricultm-e, and getting more out of the 

 land, an object of importance, both with regard to the 

 contingency of famir.e and the enormous increase of the 

 rural population. This matter assumes a gigantic propor- 

 tion when we remember that, in some disti-icts, the popul- 

 ation averages 500 or 600 to the stjuare mile. I will 

 reiterate that glowing estimates as to power of the soU 

 of Lower Bengal, if skilfully cultivated, to give a retiu-n 

 of 50 and even 75 per cent over its present outcome, 

 appear to me to rest on neither probability nor proof. 

 In the fii-st place, on a large portion of the deep land of 

 Bengal, the cultivation has been stereotyped by Natiu-e 

 herself. It wiU bear the late crop of I'ice, aiid it nill 

 bear nothmg else. It is idle to talk of manuring, or 

 ploughing deeply, land that needs nothing but plentiful, 

 continuous, and seasonable rains to produce rice of the 

 largest stalk and the heaviest ear. With a good season, 

 there is nothing to prevent this sort of land bearing a 

 fine harvest year after yeai'. 



It may happen that an excessive rainfall every now 

 and then ruins these deep lands, but lo.ss from inund- 

 ation in India is partial aud even triWal compared to that 

 inflicted by di-ought. I except, of course, such \nsitatious 

 as the tidal wave of the Megua. Some miles of counti-y 

 may be submerged by the overflow of a river, and the 

 harvest spoiled, but such damage is local an<l temporary, 

 and is partly compensated by the fdling of tanks, the 

 flushing of ditches, and the deposit of rich silt left by 

 inundation. But as a physical fact, the land of the Delta 

 is rismg, and has been rising for years. Bheels and swamps 

 are gradually silting up by the action of rain-water, or 

 water charged with deposit, and every now aud then a 

 distributary of the Ganges pom-s a fertilising flood over 

 a large span of country on each of its banks. Within 

 the memoi-y of man, many a Bheel or .swamp, the haunt 

 of waterfowl aud fish, of coot and heron, has so risen as 

 to be fitted for the plo\igh ; and while swamps have been 

 converted into rice-fields, rice-flelds in their turn have 

 become villages and gardens. Something has been done 

 by the Government of India by the creation of a Special 

 Department of Agriculture,, to record .statistics and to 

 estabUsh model farms; but this Department has, if I 

 mistake not, been recently aboUshed or doubled up with 

 another, aud I doubt very much whether there exists in 

 Bengal any machinery for ascertaining accurately the gross 

 or the net return of any one given area. Statistics of 

 population, of cultivable, cultivated, and waste lands have, 

 no doubt, been ascertained by the survey. The Pergun- 

 nah rates of rent are also well known. But though it 

 is quite po.ssible to judge of the difference between care- 

 ful and slovenly tilth, between the be.st of Hindu and the 

 worst of Blohammedan cultivators, I reiterate that it 

 would be rash to predict from the most careful husban- 

 di-y an increase of more than 10 or 15 per cent in the 

 produce. It is impossible to show, in the limits of tliis 

 paper, hoT>- large Zemindars cannot be expected to vary 

 or improve the general cultivation of the tenanti-y. Ben- 

 gal Zemindars exercise no influence over the com-se of 

 cultivation. They may cut a canal, ilig a tank, lay out a 

 roail, or establish a weekly market. But the whole'custom 

 of the country, whether based on tr.aditional precedent or 

 confirmed by judicious legislation, is against their spend- 

 ing capital, as an Bugli.sh landlord does, in scientific agric- 

 ulture and higli cultivation. The introduction of the 

 higher and more lucrative products has been entirely the 

 work of substantial Gantidars, jotedars, gr tenant i>ropric- 

 tors, call them by any revenue or local tei-m that you 

 choose. These men may own a village, or half a village, 

 or fifty beegahs. Something, of coiuse, may be done to 

 manure the laud by those who can afford it; to cultivate 

 garden produce, with some attention to the pruning and 

 grafting of fruit trees; to introduce fresh seed from other 

 Pronnces; to improve the breed of cattle, and, possibly, 

 on the high lands, to give the soil rest l>v rotation of 



cold weather crops. But, in a very large aera, rotation 

 is a simple impossibiUty, from the very nature of the 

 crop. A good deal has been done by the Government to 

 assist the agricTilturist, by opening up new communic- 

 ations, and improving those in existence. Railway.s have 

 connected dLstant provinces, and have been supplemented 

 by metalled aud by fau--weather roads; law and order 

 have become paramount ; the great waterways have been 

 made secure against dacoits, and crimes of violence have 

 been put down; and all these reforms tends to the 

 secm'ity of the producer, and enable the siu-plus of one 

 division to supply the' deficiency of another. To all this 

 no one, in this day, has contributed more than the emin- 

 ent pubUc servant who fills the chau- tonight. You 

 will remember, also, that manufactures in Bengal are only 

 just in their infancy; and hitherto— except by emigration 

 to Assam and a few other places — there have been found 

 no ready means of easing any part of Lower Bengal of 

 its sui-plus population. But I do not attempt, at the 

 close of this paper, to do more than show the inherent 

 serious diflicultie.s of the agricultural problem, and to warn 

 you against putting faixh in the jaunty predictions of con- 

 fident prophets, who niauitain the feasibility of indefin- 

 itely increasing the outturn of the harvest, and in making 

 everywhere, two or three blades of rice grow instead of one. 

 I now think it not out of place to state that very 

 little, if anything, is taken at second hand, or from books 

 and reports. It is, be its value what it may, the fruit 

 of past, direct, constant, personal inquiry into the means 

 and status of the ryot, aud of notes and statistics gathered 

 imoflicially in walks and rides round the plains and 

 homestauds, the garden and the tank, and immeiliately 

 commited to manuscript or to print. In this I lay claim 

 to no special merit, and only pretend to have followed the 

 example, as far as was possible under a different system 

 of revenue and official agency, of those eminent adminis- 

 trators who, in the North-'W'est Oudh, and the Punjab, 

 have laid the foundation of order and contentment on an 

 intimate knowledge of the habits and requirements of the 

 masses. And I may express a hope that the present 

 gener.ation of able and rising civilians in liengal may 

 neither be so drenched with statistics," nor overwhelmed 

 with calls for returns, nor so cabined aud confined 

 to the desk, as to be unable to mix freely with the 

 agricultiural population, and so obtain that famiharity with 

 village life which examinatiofi papers or Blue-books can 

 never equally afford. As I write, the old familiar scenes 

 seem to rise before me; the vast plains with unbroken 

 sheets of rice, aud the dense artificial jungle of the 

 village ; the reservoirs of deep water and high banks which 

 the munificence and piety of one generation had called into 

 existence, and the negligence of a succeeding one had 

 allowed to fall into decay ; the network of rivers, teemuig 

 with fish and covered with craft of every description, from 

 the lightest canoe to vessels of the most nuwaeldy bulk 

 and ample stowage ; the myi-iad population with their carts 

 and ploughs engaged m taxing the soil for existence, or 

 carrjnng then- produce to the nearest mart ; the spire of 

 the missionary's chmxh unexpectedly rising out of the 

 exuberant foliage of some hamlet, the lonely bungalow of 

 the civil enjaneei' or the jilanter ; and the white kutcherry, 

 where a young man, not thirty, with an alpaca coat and 

 a felt hat, is the representative of British authority, and 

 the guarantee not only that the harvests shall be gatheretl 

 unmolested by M.ahratta raid or Mohammedan invasion, 

 but also that, however protracted or fierce may be the 

 passmg controversy as to tenant rights, executive ch.ange.s, 

 and legislative progress, yet whenever a wise and judici- 

 ous coiu-se of action has been determined on, the States 

 shall be served with that heartfelt loyalty and that dis- 

 interested obedience which neither shows any trace of 

 party conflict, admits any invidious distinction of race or 

 creed. — Joxwnal of the Hociety of Arts. 



The Indian RIauiVD. — The following is an answer to a 

 query in the IniHun Forester : — In reply to K. H. in the 

 ;' Indian Forester" for March 1SS3. In the Punjab and 

 in the North-^^'est Pro^Tuces the Government mauud equals 

 82 2-7th lbs. Avoirdiipois. or 82-2857 lbs. Avoirdupois (Moles- 

 worth's Pocket Book, 21st edition, page .598.) The maund 

 at Changa Manga plantation cannot be other tliau the 

 authorised Government maund of North India. 



