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extricate ourselves from the trying position in which 

 we are now placed, and relieve the country of troubles 

 mainly due to our own past, unintentional, misman- 

 agement. 



And here the reader may possibly think that some 

 injustice is being done to our administration, and re- 

 membering that eight years or so ago a good deal 

 was heard of the establishment, under Lord Mayo's 

 auspices, of an Agricultural Department in India, may 

 ask how the existence of this special department is 

 compatible with such an entire neglect of agricultural 

 reform as has been asserted. 



The answer is simple : There is not, and never 

 has been, any real Agricultural Department in India. 

 There is a Miscellaneous Department of the Govern- 

 ment of India, which, amongst its various titles, bears 

 the word *' Agriculture," but that Department has 

 not, and cannot, from the nature of things, exercise 

 any potential influence on the agriculture of the 

 country quoad which it is a vox et prceterea nihih 



Nothing is more calculated to deter earnest men 

 from exerting themselves to secure for India that 

 agricultural development of which she stands so 

 grievously in need than the belief (erroneous as it is) 

 that there already exists a special local organisation 

 for this very purpose, and I propose, therefore, to 

 explain — 



What the so-called Agricultural Department really 

 does; 



How, though bearing this title, it has done, and (as 

 at present constituted) can do, nothing (worthy the 

 name) to reform Indian agriculture ; 



