IV. PREFACE. 



inhabitants are living in abject and squalid poverty, 

 trying to gain from Mother Earth the little remnant 

 of its former wealth and fruitfulness which the 

 recklessness and ignorance of preceding generations 

 have left it, and that the reason of this poverty is 

 the neglect of agricultural improvements which past 

 and present rulers have been guilty of, and the utter 

 disregard which past generations have paid to the 

 interests of their children's children by exhausting 

 the resources of a soil which once was remarkable 

 for its fertility. 



This, therefore, is an attempt to bring the subject 

 in all its bearings more fully to the notice of the 

 public, and to remove that indifference and want of 

 interest with which everything connected with 

 Indian Agriculture is usually received. 



I have dedicated this book to the memory of the 

 late Baron Yon Liebig, in whose death we mourn 

 the loss of one of the greatest chemists of the age. 

 I have to thank him that I feel confidence enough 

 to diffuse his great ideas more generally in ^India, 

 and to contribute my mite to the benefit of my 

 fellow-creatures. The merit of my venture in writ- 

 ing this book in a (to me) foreign language is 

 entirely his ; it is due to the influence of his ideas, 

 which he never failed to impress deeply upon all 

 who came in contact with him. If I am able to 

 further his principles by means of this book, and 

 can succeed in the task by following the way he 



