AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS IN INDIA. 23 



EXTENT OF ARARI.E LAND. 



The hii-uo proportion of the whole country that is jiral>lo i.s one of 

 the tir-st and most noteworthy observations of the traveler in India. 

 In Jai)an one-tenth of the entire area ean be tilled, and in China a lari,^e 

 part of the country can never be sul)j(H'ted to the plow, althouoh 

 China as a whole ranks high in fertile lands; l)ut in India, out of the 

 544,993,122 acres of surveyed land in 1899, seven-eh-venths were 

 available for cultivation and 190,487.058 acres were actually sown with 

 crops. 



FERTILITY OF THE SOIL. 



One of the most suggestive items to be noted is the fertility of the 

 soil, after a tillage of so many thousand years, with little manure of 

 anv kind. With few exceptions all the dung of animals is used for 

 fuel, and as far as observed those exceptions were limited to the gov- 

 ernment farms. Many good farmers are said to use some cattle 

 excreta on the land, but in all the small villages visited dung, made into 

 patties and dried in the sun, was almost the only fuel. In the vicinity 

 of cities the preparation and sale of cattle dung for fuel is quite an 

 industry, and as far as observed it is all used in this way, 



GREEN MANURES. 



Inquiry at all the government agricultural stations visited and 

 observations throughout India failed to develop a single case where 

 green manures had been used to fertilize the soil. A further evidence 

 that it is not used is found in the fact that the plows used simply stir 

 the soil, but can not turn anything under. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



It is difficult to use commercial fertilizers among Hindu farmers, 

 for they suspect that all such preparations contain bone, blood, or 

 some refuse of dead or slaughtered animals, and they declare it will 

 defile them to handle it. An English gentleman in Calcutta told me 

 that he had purchased some commercial fertilizer for his garden and 

 his Hindu gardener refused to put it on the land. He employed a 

 low-caste man to apply it to the vegetables, and after it was applied 

 the o-ardener made no objection to working the soil on which it had 

 been scattered. 



CROP ROTATION. 



Rotation of crops is well understood and practiced. This gives a 

 partial relief in case of continuous cropping. To some extent sum- 

 mer fallowing has been employed as a renovating method. On the 

 whole the present fertility of the soil is marvelous. 



