THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



121 



would keep even the well-fed in health. The main- 

 tenance of the liorses of our cavalry, and a Larger supply 

 of mutton and beef, which will be required to keep 

 pace with European settlement, render this subject of 

 importance. 



In AfTghanistan several of the millets (species of 

 Panicum and IIolcus) are often cultivated for their 

 herbage, which is dried and stored for the winter. Even 

 wheat and barley are cut green before the ear has 

 formed, and given to horses and cattle with advantage. 

 This cutting is often repeated with barley ; but if wheat 

 is cut more than once the crop is injured. 



The practical suggestions of experienced agricul- 

 turists may do much to improve the systems of hus- 

 bandry pursued in India. The introduction of suitable 

 implements — not, perhaps, the heavy and expensive 

 ones used in England, where high farming is followed, 

 but still something more effective than the rude sticks 

 used for ploughs, harrows, rollers, di'ills, kc, for so 

 long a time in India. A better rotation of crops and 

 a better system of applying manure are essential, while 

 the reprehensible practice of growing crops commingled 

 should be abolished. 



It is not uncommon to see the cotton plant, pulse, 

 and the castor-oil shrub growing intermixed. In other 

 districts, barley, peas, some one of the oil-seed crops, and 

 safflower are often mixed with wheat. The usual mix- 

 tures in Bengal are — flax gi-own ibr the seed, and 

 mustard; a kind of ^lea, lentil, and mustard; and barley 

 or wheat with flax. 



The breeds of cattle and sheep can also bo greatly im- 

 proved. The fine, powerful oxen employed by the 

 Indian Government are a proof that proper food and 

 treatment, and attention in breeding, will enable much 

 more efficient animals to be kept for draught than the 

 dwarfish little bullocks commonly used by the natives. 

 Much has already been done to improve the fleece of 

 Indian wool ; but more can yet be done. We imported 

 last year about nineteen-and-a-hali' million pounds of 

 wool from British India, being an increase of more than 

 sixty per cent, in the last four years. 



With so many millions of acres available for the 

 culture of plants, either suited to tropical or temperate 

 region^;, with cheap labour and with cheap land, there 

 is no reason why an opening should not offer for many 

 a spirited individual in some of the Indian Presidencies. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE 

 AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



Chaucer says of his Clerk of Oxenford, that he was 

 full of 



" High sentence : 

 Sounding in moral virtue was his npeech, 

 And gladly would he learn and gladly teach." 



Now we would remark, in continuation of our notes in 

 our last paper, on the necessity of the employed doing 

 his best to exert a good influence in his home and 

 around his hearth, that in this readiness to learn lies 

 his surest hope of being able to teach. This mutuaUty 

 between giving and receiving, is not so obvious to many 

 amongst us, after all ; else why do we show a greater 

 desire to teach than to be taught ? The philosopher of 

 old, on being asked how it was that he knew so much, 

 replied that it was owing to his never being ashamed, in 

 asking anything, to show his ignorance of it. Now, the 

 best-informed amongst us must needs admit, if 

 we are honest with ourselves, that we might have been 

 letter informed had we not too often been ashamed of 

 our ignorance. By pretending that we knew, or at least 

 giving no intimation that we did not know of it, we have 

 lost many a golden opportunity of acquiring knowledge. 

 Now the employed must, if he has a real desire to teach 

 (and we have in our last paper attempted to show to him 

 his high responsibilities in this matter) he must never 

 be ashamed to be taught, or, by withholding the avowal 

 of his ignorance of any subject, lose the opportunity of 

 acquuiug knowledge of it. Nor is this teaching to be 

 derived from books merely, or by himself occupying the 

 benches of a school. Many sage counsels may be 

 dropped, and much sound information thrown broadcast 

 by his employer, or even by the companion of his 



labour, in the field while at work, or at the cottage- 

 door while at rest or recreation. For all these thmgs 

 he should have a ready ear and a willing mind. He 

 must cultivate the capability of receiving, as well as of 

 storing up ; of looking out for the good seed, as well as 

 preparing his mind for the reception of it ; borrowing a 

 lesson from the labour at which he toils in the field — 

 that the land, if left to itself, without the seed-corn 

 being planted in it, brings forth only the prickly briar 

 or the noxious weed ; and that if sown, the seed cannot 

 fructify to its fullest perfection till the land is cultivated 

 and prepared for it : these two must always go hand 

 in hand, preparation and reception. And, as much 

 knowledge lies hid in books, let him wisely use such 

 spare time as he has given him, in the cultivation of an 

 acquaintance with their contents ; nor grudge moreover 

 a little self-denial : much will not, in these days of 

 cheap literature, be required of him, a pipe or a 

 pot of beer the less— to obtain them. But limited as his 

 literature may be, there is always one book to which he 

 can have access, which, whilst it inculcates " fervency 

 of spirit," no less forcibly enjoins " diligence in busi- 

 ness" ; and which, whilst it shows us how best to do cur 

 duty to ourselves, teaches how fullest to do it to our 

 neighbour. Nor let the employed think that the result 

 of all this self-reform and self-culture will only be ad- 

 vantageous as showing to others the influence of a good 

 home example ; although, if it did no more than this, it 

 would be worth all the labour incurred in getting it; 

 It will not end there ; as it '• grows with his growth, and 

 strengthens with his strength," it will exert an influence 

 on his own material prospects, and, while it makes him 



