54 



and of the specialist staff. He has as second in 

 command, an agricultural specialist with the title of 

 Deputy Director of Agriculture, on whom must actually, 

 though not nominally, fall the real initiative and control 

 of the Department. The system can only be justified, 

 or rather excused, by the real difficulty of finding trained 

 agricultural officers with those other qualifications which 

 are essential in the head of a Government Department 

 in India, and by the circumstance that besides technical 

 agriculture there are usually involved in the work of the 

 Department purely administrative and legal questions 

 relating to land, with which an Indian civilian is best 

 qualified to deal. I have been in touch with this 

 system for a number of years, and during a recent visit 

 to India I have had further opportunities of studying it. 



It must be admitted that occasionally, an Indian 

 civilian has taken great interest in agricultural work 

 and has made himself an efficient and sympathetic head 

 of the Department. In general, however, the plan has 

 many drawbacks, and so long as it is adopted the best 

 men will not be attracted to the Indian Agricultural 

 Service in spite of the pecuniary advantages which it 

 offers as compared with the Agricultural Service of the 

 British tropical colonies. I am informed that it is 

 possible for a Deputy Director of Agriculture in India 

 to become the Head of the Department. I am, how- 

 ever, not aware of any instance in which this has 

 actually, happened, although the Deputy Director may 

 act as the head of the Department in the temporary 

 absence of the Director. So far as I am aware an 

 actual vacancy is generally, if not invariably, filled by 

 the appointment of a member of the Indian Civil 

 Service. 



Admitting the difficulties at the present time which 

 stand in the way of the creation of self-contained 

 Agricultural Departments in India, I venture to think 

 that some change is now called for in the existing plan. 

 If it is considered impossible to form a separate De- 

 partment for dealing with administrative and legal 

 questions connected with land tenure, I am inclined to 

 suggest that an alternative might be found in the forma- 

 tion in each Province of a small Board of Agriculture, 

 composed of official and non-official members, of which 



