CH. VII] AGRICULTURAL NEEDS OF PLANTING ENTERPRISE 195 



peasant should be encouraged to grow the " estate " crops, and 

 those which he best understands and prefers, while the estates 

 should be subsidised to whatever extent is actually necessary 

 to induce them to buy the peasants' produce at fixed rates. 



The further points to be attended to if agriculture is to 

 progress are technical, and it is pretty evident that to attend 

 properly to these a technical and scientific Department of 

 Agriculture is required. All crops grown in the country require 

 careful study with regard to the varieties grown, the methods 

 of cultivation used, the liability to disease, the preparation of 

 the product for market, the prices obtained, and so on. In all 

 these points improvement is possible and necessary, by the 

 introduction of new crops from abroad, by the introduction of 

 new kinds of the already existing crops, by the breeding of new 

 varieties better suited to local conditions, by the improvement 

 of local methods, tools, machinery, use of manure, mixture and 

 rotation of crops, by better and more prompt treatment of 

 disease, by improvement of methods of preparation of produce, 

 by cheapening of cost of production and transport, and in many 

 other ways. 



The great obstacles in the way of this improvement are 

 ignorance, poverty, indolence, and conservatism. Education 

 must therefore be an important factor. Gardening at school 

 should be encouraged, on the lines already indicated, and later 

 definite peripatetic agricultural teaching must be tried, perhaps 

 through the medium of the officers engaged in carrying out 

 sanitary enactments. The operation of these enactments affords 

 an excellent peg on which to hang future attempts at the 

 amelioration of local agriculture. 



132 



