22 OTHER ECONOMIC FACTORS 



derived from the rise of prices have in fact been largely 

 dissipated in the manner I have indicated ; and it will not 

 be possible to reduce the cost of cultivation or the popula- 

 tion. Consequently with falling prices the landlord class 

 will not be able to go on increasing their rents. They may 

 keep the rates of rents stationary, but will have increasing 

 difficulties in actually collecting them. New settlements 

 wili gradually absorb much of the advantage they might 

 secure from a falling cost of living. The economic 

 conflict between the two opposing classes is bound, there- 

 fore, to become more severe so long as landlords remain 

 mere rent-receivers. Harmony can only be attained by 

 inducing the landlords, and then permitting them, to 

 exercise their true function of organizers and directors of 

 the agricultural industry. 



A full understanding of economics tells us clearly that 

 the welfare of the Indian people demands the increase of 

 the produce of the soil to the maximum. What we need 

 is the greatest yield per acre of every crop, grown in the 

 locality which suits it best. Increase this, and the wealth 

 circulating throughout all classes of the community is 

 bound to increase : this will stimulate industries and provide 

 the means for a higher standard of living amongst all 

 classes. 



An important distinction is to be drawn here between 

 increasing the net produce and the gross produce of agriculture. 

 The former may be achieved by cutting down the costs of 

 cultivation, particularly by displacing labor by machinery, 

 by replacing intensive by extensive farming, by converting 

 arable land into irrigated pasture for cattle and sheep 

 raising. These may prove most profitable branches of 

 farming enterprise, and within reasonable limits will be 

 beneficial particularly where applied to lands now waste. 

 The improvement of the profits of cultivation is not, however, 



