EXCELLENCE OF INDIAN FARMING 211 



And he goes on to say : ' To take the ordinary acts 

 of husbandry, nowhere would one find better instances 

 of keeping land scrupulously free of weeds, of ingenuity 

 in device of water-raising appliances, of knowledge of 

 soils and their capabilities, as well as of the exact time 

 to sow and to reap, as one would in Indian agriculture, 

 and this not at its best alone, but at its ordinary level. 

 It is wonderful, too, how much is known of rotation, 

 the system of mixed crops, and of fallowing. Certain 

 it is that I, at least, have never seen a more perfect 

 picture of careful cultivation, combined with hard 

 labour, perseverance and fertility of resource, than 

 I have seen at many of the halting-places in my 

 tour.'* 



' This,' says Mr. Crooke, * is indeed high praise from 

 a very competent authority, but no one who is 

 familiar with the best types of Indian farming, the 

 broad st3de of the Western Jat, the more minute 

 methods of the Eastern Kurmi, will hold it to be 

 undeserved. At the same time, there is plenty of 

 slovenly, indifferent husbandry among Brahmans, who 

 are too proud to touch a plough, or Gujars, whose 

 proper business is cattle-rearing, combined with steal- 

 ing their neighbours' beasts. 



' There are two stock charges which are commonly 

 laid against the Indian farmer, both of which are to a 

 large degree undeserved. One is his so-called stupid 

 reverence for traditional methods ; the other, that he 

 will only scratch the surface instead of properly 

 ploughing his field. 



' First, as to his caution and lack of enterprise, it is 

 true that an appeal to the customs of his ancestors 

 never fails to impress him ; but, on the other hand, 

 his methods are based on an amount of inherited 

 experience which few European farmers possess, and 

 in the absence of books his practice is regulated by 

 * Quoted by W. Crooke, ' The North-Western Provinces of India,' 

 P- 330- 



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