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The reasons why the improvement has taken the form of extension 

 of irrigation either by means of water provided by Q-overnment or 

 obtained by the ryots at their expense from wells are not far to seek. 

 Cultivation in this country is dependent on supply of water, while in 

 England the main problem connected with agriculture is drainage. 

 The extreme variations in the quantity of rainfall and the times when 

 it comes down make every other consideration of far less importance 

 than the supply of water in the quantities and at the times required 

 for cultivation. The first great requisite of successful agriculture 

 except in black cotton soils, which are extremely retentive of moisture 

 and yield abundant returns in spite of scanty rainfall, is therefore 

 storage of water or the tapping of subsoil springs. The application of 

 irrigation to crops increases also the produce so enormously in pro- 

 portion to the cost of the water that no other mode of raising additional 

 produce from land can compete with it. In the case of lands for 

 which means of irrigation are not available, the produce fluctuates 

 greatly from year to year according to the quantity and seasonableness 

 of the rainfall. This great uncertainty operates as a bar to the in- 

 troduction of improved methods of cultivation, rotation of crops, &c., 

 except in the case of commercial crops for which there is a fairly 

 constant demand in f.oreign countries, because in the case of a rotation 

 of crops for instance, the year in which a light restorative crop is 

 grown might be one in which the season is very favorable and the 

 year in which the main crop is grown might be one of drought. 

 Again, deep ploughing, which is of great assistance to the crop in 

 times of drought, is not required in times of comparatively good rain- 

 fall. Similar considerations apply to irrigation by means of wells. I 

 have found from inquiry in the Coimbatore district that garden cul- 

 tivation by means of wells cannot be carried on successfully unless the 

 cultivator has some acres of dry land attached as an adjunct to his 

 " garden " lands. The reason for this is the following. The labour of 

 lifting water is great and the cultivator has to employ all through the 

 year hired labour and bullocks for the purpose. If the rainfall be 

 abundant in any particular year the cultivation can be carried on to a 

 great extent without lifting water, and in such cases both human 

 labour and cattle power will have to be kept idle, i.e.y wasted, unless it 

 is employed in dry cultivation thereby enhancing the cost of culti- 

 vation by wells. In dry seasons, on the other hand, when the culti- 

 vation has to be carried on mainly with the aid of water baled from 

 wells, the whole labour and cattle power is concentrated on the 

 " garden " lands, and the dry fields are left uncultivated. The profits 

 of cultivation in both the years are nearly the same as the value of 

 produce in the dry season would be higher than in the favorable 

 season, notwithstanding that the area under cultivation in the former 

 year was considerably less than in the latter year. In the same way 

 the proportion of crops, pulses for instance, to cereals, is to some 

 extent determined by the extent to which pulses enter into the diet of 

 the population. These considerations are specially applicable to pro- 

 duce grown for home consumption. As foreign dem^jud is developed 

 owing to extension of communications there will be greater room for 

 regulating the kinds of crops grown so as to obtain the largest out- 

 turns from the land. I have alluded to these considerations merely 



