[ 44 ] 



examined, and when we fully realise tlie vast strength 

 of our revenue and irrigation establislinients tlirough- 

 out all those portions of the empire in which we have 

 the most direct interest in the progress of agriculture,* 

 it will be perceived that the plant for much of the 

 work is already on the ground, and that all that is 

 primarily necessary is an efficient directing and con- 

 trolling agency. 



III. 



Some of the problems that ivould at the outset engage 

 the attention of an Indian Bureau of Agriculture. 



Assuming that now, at last., some real steps will be 

 taken in the direction of agricultural reform, it may 

 be useful to glance at some few of those problems 

 which should apparently at the outset engage the 

 attention of any working department of agriculture 

 in India, t 



* In Lower Bengal no doubt these establishments are weak, 

 but then the land revenue is here permanently settled, and we 

 have not the same immediate pecuniary interest in the reform of 

 agriculture there. 



t I have no doubt that many will be inclined to urge that 

 Agricultural education — a kind of education infinitely more needed 

 than the education in Law and Letters, now given at such a vast 

 cost in our Colleges and Universities — is one of the first things 

 to be undertaken, and that Agricultural manuals and text-books, 

 with object lessons in elementary schools, &c., are primary essen- 

 tials. 



But this is not my view — these things, good as they are, belong 

 to a more advanced stage of progress. 



At the outset, the Agricultural Department will have mainly to 

 teach itself. Scientific truths are immutable, but their profitable 



