EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XVII. March, L906. No. 



The clluiis which are making for the promotion of agriculture in 

 India are described in the initial number of TJu Agricultural Journal 

 of fndia, which has recently come to hand. The leading article in 

 this new journal is by the inspector general of agriculture in India, 

 and reviews the history of the movement to improve the condition 

 of agriculture in that country, the present status of this work, and 

 the plans for future development. It is a decidedly interesting and 

 instructive article, and shows that the government of that country i- 

 thoroughly aroused to the desirability and importance of aiding its 

 basic industry by means of research, education of different grades, 

 demonstration, and close contact with the farmers. 



The machinery for conducting this work already exists, and hence 

 it becomes largely a matter of extending these agencies and increas- 

 ing their efficiency. The organization for agriculture includes an 

 Imperial department of agriculture, with headquarters at Calcutta, 

 and a system of provincial departments of agriculture, each presided 

 over by a director, and to a certain extent independent of the imperial 

 department. 'Phis system has grown out of the inquiries and recom- 

 mendations made by the famine commissions of 1866 and 1880, and in 

 Organization has naturally followed the main division of the general 

 administration into imperial and provincial departments. 



Tin 1 imperial department is presided over by the inspector-general 

 of agriculture and the assistant inspector-general. The staff includes 

 the director and principal of the agricultural research institute and 

 agricultural college at Pusa, and several specialists, among them an 

 agricultural chemist, a cryptogamic botanist, a biological and economic 

 botanist, an entomologist, an ••agri-horticulturist." and an "agri-bac- 

 teriologist."' There arc eight provincial departments of agriculture 

 located, respectively, in the provinces of Bombay. Madras. Bengal, 

 United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Punjab, Central Provinces. Assam. 

 and Burma. Each department has a director and a deputy director. 

 frequently an assistant director, and an irregular number of specialists. 

 In several cases inspectors and botanists are carried upon the stall, and 

 the Bengal department has indigo and jute specialists, while the Bom- 



bav deoartment has an agricultural chemist. 



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