May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



SS9 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF INDIA. 



Sir James Caird, I'.R.s. , presided on Jan. 23rd at 

 a meeting of the Indian Section of the Society of 

 Arts, when a Paper was read by Mr. E. O. Buck, 

 Secretary in the Revenue and Agricultural Depart- 

 ment of the Indian Government, on " The Agricult- 

 ural Resources of India." 



In the course of his address Mr. Buck said he was 

 one of those who was convinced that under British 

 rule the position o( the agricultural population and 

 the producing capacity of the country were, and 

 would continue to be, materially improved, aud he 

 was not afraiil to assert that the resources of Iudia 

 were capable of a further development, which it was 

 impossible as yet to measure. The great want 

 under which Indian agriculture laboured might be 

 described in one word, "raiu." Although the mon- 

 soons of India conferred upon it its agricultural rank 

 amongst other countries, yet within India itself 

 they varied immensely and created enormous varieties 

 of climate in combination with two other varying 

 factors — the temperature due to latitude and the 

 dryuess due to distance from the seaboard. The 

 consequence was that there was no crop in the world 

 which India could not produce. Notwithstanding the 

 fact that while monsoons conferred agricultural wealth 

 the uncertain character of the rain in the greater 

 part of the country was so excessive that the agri- 

 cultural out-turn, so far as it depended on the rain 

 of the year, was subject to violent oscillations. How 

 to overcome the oscillation, or to mitigate its effects 

 was the great problem which had to be solved, aud 

 it was he (Mr. Buck) was glad to say being vigor- 

 ously attacked aud to some extent solved in Iudia. 

 The system of agriculture was eminently one of 

 petite culture, and it was no exaggeration to say that 

 the country was split up iuto many millious of live- 

 acre farms, the holders of wh ch were small tenants 

 paying rent over a large part of Iudia direct to the 

 State and over a still larger part to a landlord, 

 or a landlord intermediate between them and the 

 State. The State as landlord-inchief was now en- 

 gaged in the promotion of railways, caual, and well 

 irrigation, the improvement of the revenue and 

 rent systems, the reclamation of waste lands, the es- 

 tablishment of fuel aud fodder reserves, the intro- 

 duction of agricultural improvements, aud finally 

 emigration. A great deal had been done to assist 

 agriculture in Iudia generally, but there was yet 

 much to be accomplished, but of this people might 

 rest assured, that whatever pictures might be drawn 

 of local distress in some parts of Iudia, in the 

 greater part of the Empire the condition of the 

 cultivators was materially better than it was fifty 

 years ago. 



In the discussion which followed, Mr. Seton- 

 Karr, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Reed (a Bengal planter), 

 Sir Hugh Lowe (who, from his experience of Perak, 

 advocated free immigration from India to the Malay 

 States), and Mr. Pedder, were among the speakers. 



Sir James Caird, in conveying the thanks of the 

 meeting to Mr. Buck, complimented him on the 

 clear and graphic picture of India, both physically 

 and in relation to its people, which he had plaetd 

 before them. It was a good augury of its success that the 

 head of the now Department of Revenue and Agricult- 

 ure had a firm and clear hold of his subject, and well 

 knew how to handle it in practice, and it must give 

 great confidence to those who had placed him in that 

 responsible and onerous position to know that he 

 would treat the subject with kuowledge and with 

 care. It must have been most agreeable to those 

 who had any experience of Iudia to find that a termin- 

 ation was about to be put to a system by which 

 the really impossible attempt was made to fix a 

 valuation upon soils, since, however experienced the 



oflieer might be, it was impossible that he should 

 be able to tell that one soil or another was worth 

 one rupee more or less than that beside it. It was 

 to be hoped that the Government, while dealing in 

 a just aud liberal spirit with the sublandlord, would 

 take care that the latter should be bound to act in 

 a like spirit with his sub-tenant, the actual cultiv- 

 ator. Mr. Buck stated his belief that the agricult- 

 ural resources of India were capable of great develop- 

 ment, and the need of this was sufficiently obvious, 

 since in every ten years provision must be found 

 from it for an additional twenty millions of people. The 

 magnitude of the country and its resources, fifty 

 times the population and fifty times tiie extent 

 of the cultivated land of Egypt, as he had pictured 

 it, was in one grand point inferior to Egypt aud in 

 another superior. It was not like Egypt watered by 

 a fertilizing Nile, which periodically renewed the 

 productive power of the soil. But, on the other hand, 

 the actual debt of India, independent of the capital 

 invested in remunerative works, was little more than 

 oue year's revenue, while Egypt was burdened with 

 a crushing debt of fourteen times its revenue. . . 

 The Government of India, Sir James observed in 

 continuation of his remarks, now proposed to adopt 

 measures to promote the full working power of the great 

 human machine by extending railways, by canal and 

 well irrigation, by improvement of the revenue and 

 rent systems, by the reclamation of waste lands, the 

 guardianship of common pastures, and finally by assist- 

 ing migration aud emigration. With regard to irrig- 

 ation, he agreed with Mr. Pedder that where wells 

 could be got with water at a moderate depth from the 

 surfaca, Bay 30 ft., and where they could profitably be 

 used, there was no system of irrigation in India so 

 perfect as that by which each little cultivator could 

 command a supply of water on his farm, and apply 

 it wherever he required it. In speaking of canal 

 irrigation he thought Mr. Buck had not alluded to 

 the great distinction between the northern and southern 

 irrigation. The northern irrigation was the water 

 taken from the melting snows of the Himalayas. 

 Reverting to other topics brought forward by Mr. 

 Buck, Sir James Caird said, in conclusion, that in 

 the judicious promotion of each of these would be 

 found the truest safe-guard for the continued pio- 

 gress and welfare of Iudia aud its best protection in 

 time of famine. To the other members of the Famine 

 Commission, a3 to himself, it was specially comfort- 

 ing to find that each one of these objects, after caieful 

 consideration by the Commission, had been pressed 

 on the attention of tho Government of India with 

 a convincing clearness and force for which they were 

 indebted to the ability of their secretary, Mr. Elliot, 

 now Chief Commissioner of Assam. And to Lord Ripon, 

 by his acceptance of them, belonged the honour of 

 grasping the true position of the country, aud of having 

 laid during his Viceroyalty the foundation of prin- 

 ciple* which it faithfully carried out must largely con- 

 tribute to its future prosperity. (Cheers.)— Home News. 



FISH-CURINC IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 

 We have received from the Madras Government the 

 report of Mr. Bliss, Commissioner of Salt and 

 Akbari Revenue, on the fish-curing operations during 

 the half-year ending 30th September 1SS4, from which 

 we learn that there were 124 yards open at that date, 

 as compared with 106 on 30th September 1883 ; 09,125 

 applications, against 24,353 ; 143,312 maunds of fish 

 brought to be cured, against 72,080 maunds ; 23,707 

 maunds of salt issued, against 13,002 maunds ; 

 R13.830 worth of salt sold, against R7,9dl ; tho 

 quanity of salt issued to each niaund weight of fish 

 being 13-61 lb., against 14 84 lb. ; while the ex- 

 penditure incurred by Cinvornmout wus R9,181, 



