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cycle, in whkh the seasons were supposed to run 

 through all their variations.) These statistical 

 tables appear to have been prepared with extreme 

 care, and their reliability is incontestable an 

 assurance which cannot unfortunately be always 

 made in connection with the agricultural statistics 

 collected in these days. According to these 

 tables, the average produce of rice in India 

 amounted in the middle of the seventeenth century 

 to 1,338 Ibs. per acre, of wheat 1,155 Ibs., of cotton 

 (unpicked) 670 Ibs., equal to about 223 Ibs. picked. 

 On reference to the statistics of the nineteenth 

 century, and especially of this decade, we find the 

 average yield of rice to be 800 to 900 Ibs. per 

 acre, of wheat 660 Ibs., of cotton (picked) 52 Ibs. 

 Have we not reason to stand aghast at the fact 

 thus revealed, that the soil of India is rapidly 

 approaching exhaustion ? For thousands of years 

 the soil of India has nourished millions of souls ; 

 but during all that time it has, with every recurring 

 year, been deprived of a large portion of its plant- 

 food of organic and inorganic elements which are 

 indispensable to the growth and development of 

 crops, while the restoration of these essential ele- 

 ments has either been nil, or of an extremely in- 

 adequate character. Can we, then, be surprised at 

 the alarming declension the above figures indicate ? 

 A very striking instance of the gradual deterio- 

 ration and inevitable exhaustion of the soil under 



