Every year enormous quantities of grain and 

 other food- stuffs are consumed ; large quantities 

 are annually exported to foreign countries, which 

 means that we yearly deprive the soil of a certain 

 amount of its component parts, a quantity of 

 mineral substances which form the most important 

 portion of it, and which are essential to the growth 

 of the crops. Just as the world rotates in endless 

 circles, so these substances ought to circulate, and 

 return whence they came, after fulfilling their 

 purpose of sustaining life and only thus can the 

 laws of nature be satisfied and the balance of ferti- 

 lity preserved. But in no land more than in India 

 has this great law of restoration been so utterly 

 ignored, and consequently her soil, from being once 

 the most fertile, has become sterile, and the once 

 renowned Garden of the East has become a com- 

 paratively barren country. 



It is true that the ryot, the native cultivator, does 

 make a certain return to the soil ; he burns the 

 remaining stubble of the previous crop, as also 

 leaves, grass, &c., which are gathered for the pur- 

 pose, and the ashes of which, spread over the fields, 

 are supposed to compensate for the loss sustained. 

 But the ashes of leaves and stalks will only supply 

 the mineral food for the creation of similar parts ; 

 and as the value of a crop consists in the quantity of 

 the grain, and not in the quantity of straw, it is 

 apparent that such an inadequate restoration will 



