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plies wliicli are required for their own use. This feeling 

 soon wears away, and when these parts suffer in their turn 

 from scarcity, the effects of which are mitigated bj supplies 

 derived from other regions, the advantages of communications 

 become at once manifest. I suppose this has been the case 

 with Kurnool, where the season of 1890 was excellent, but 

 the surplus produce was drawn off by the surrounding dis- 

 tressed tracts, the new railway assisting in the transport of 

 grain. In 1891, when the crop failed in the Kurnool district 

 itself, there were no stores of grain to fall back upon, and 

 the result was that the population was taken by surprise. 

 I believe the recent distress and riots must have, in a great 

 measure, been due to this cause. As regards the moral 

 benefits conferred by railways, it is sufficient to say that they 

 are of even greater importance in stimulating the intelli- 

 gence of a hitherto inert and stay-at-home population and 

 removing provincial prejudices, than schools and Universities. 

 A orreat deal, then, has been done by Government indirectly 

 to improve the position of the agrricultural classes. What 

 remains to be done is, as Mr. Nicholson has put it in his 

 excellent report on the economic condition of the Anantapur 

 district, '* to attack the ryot himself directly and to bring to 

 bear on him the force of education in agriculture and rural 

 economy." The situation is not a hopeless one ; and Sir 

 James Caird, a Member of the Famine Commission, who 

 devoted considerable attention to the investigation of the 

 agricultural conditions of the Presidency, has told us, *'it is 

 possible to obtain such a gradual increase of production in 

 India as would meet the present rate of increase of population 

 for a considerable time. One bushel per acre gained gradu- 

 ally in a period of ten years, in addition to a moderate 

 reclamation of cultivable land, would meet the demand of the 

 present growth of population. Considering the generally fer- 

 tile nature of the soil, and that in most parts of India two 

 crops can be got in the year, this would seem to be a possible 

 result. By these two methods, wisely combined, the increase 

 of population may be safely provided for several generations. 

 The attainment of this will be vastly increased by committing 

 to each province the responsibility of the operations necessary 

 for its own success and of enlisting the active assistance of 

 the most capable native officials, municipalities and land- 

 owners in the work. " The increase of production has, 

 however, its limits, and for a permanent marked improve- 

 ment in the standard of living^ and the sreneral condition of 

 the masses, a change in the national habits in regard to early 

 marriages is* a necessary requisite. I have already in my 



