[ 104 ] 



or with its concurrence and encouragement, the following] may be 

 noticed : — 



Trials have been made to establish the relative cost of growing 

 wheat and oats, with reference to communications from the Military 

 Department, suggesting the extended cultivation of oats for the 

 feed of troop horses. It is believed that oats cost as much to 

 grow as wheat, and that the crop is not nearly as remunerative, 

 and the trials were intended to verify these points. 



Trials have been made in the North- We stern Provinces and 

 the Punjab with a description of rice much grown in Sikkim, 

 which requii-es no irrigation. Such rice would be very useful in 

 many localities. 



The value of poudrette, as a manure, has been made the subject 

 of innumerable and most careful experiments. Other manures 

 have also been tried from time to time, but it is unnecessary to 

 refer to them, seeing that for a considerable time to come the 

 principal manures within the reach of the agricultural population 

 of India will be farm-yard manure, crushed bones, and poudrette, 

 and against the use of the latter there are caste prejudices still to 

 be overcome. 



At one time a blight threatened the utter destruction of the 

 opium crop of Behar. Appearing season after season over a con- 

 stantly increasing area, grave apprehensions were entertained as to 

 the prospects of the important revenue depending on this crop. A 

 minute and searching scientific investigation into the blight was 

 undertaken under the advice of this Department by a very com- 

 petent observer, Mr. John Scott, of the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, 

 and this investigation, carried on over a period of some five 

 years, has resulted in proving that the " blight " is due to a 

 vicious system of cultivation. The seed is never changed or 

 selected, the soil has been exhausted, and the plants have degene- 

 rated and die from disease induced by exhaustion. The vices of 

 the system of opium cultivation are, in fact, the vices which affect 

 Indian agriculture generally. 



In Port Blair, also under the advice, and in most cases at the 

 instance, of this Department, experiments have been made with 

 Sea-island cotton, tobacco, vanilla, coffee, and Manilla hemj), in 

 every case with more or less success, although the existing condi- 

 tion of the settlement prevents the success being followed up on a 

 large scale. 



Experiments were tried with the sunflower, which is largely 

 cultivated as an oil-producer in Eussia, and which was reported 

 (erroneously) to possess a malaria- destroying capacity ; but, after 

 a year or so of comparative failure, it was concluded that it was 

 more to the purpose to increase and stimulate the production and 

 improve the quality of articles already well known in the country 

 than to grow crops of which the ultimate commercial success was 



