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an exhausted field, otherwise its cultivator will 

 receive a poor return for his labour. 



In Great Britain, where the necessity for liberal 

 harvests and artificial fertilization is far greater 

 than in this country, the yield of wheat is said to 

 be governed in a great degree by the amount of 

 ammonia available as plant-food. This opinion is 

 founded, not on theory at all, but altogether on the 

 teachings of experience. But in England, limeing 

 and manuring are so much matters of constant 

 practice, that few soils are in such an impoverished 

 state as many are in India. With land as naked 

 and sterile as most of India's soil, English farmers 

 could hardly pay their tithes and poor rates, besides 

 other taxes, rent, and the cost of producing their 

 annual crops. 



The first step towards making farming perma- 

 nently profitable in India is to accumulate, in a 

 cheap and skilful manner, the raw material for 

 good harvests in the soil. Over a territory so 

 extensive as the Indian Empire, it would be 

 extremely difficult to lay down any rule that would 

 be even approximately applicable. 



There are, however, many beds of marl, gypsum, 

 kunkur, saline and vegetable deposits available for 

 the improvement of farm-lands in British India. 

 In addition to these, there are extraneous sources 

 the ocean with its fish, its shells, its sea-weeds, 

 and its fertilizing salts, which will yield an incalcu- 



