INCREASE OF GROSS PRODUCE 23 



the policy which will be the most beneficial to the coun- 

 try as a whole, in so far as it is achieved without increasing 

 the total wealth produced from the soil. What is needed 

 is that the primary industry agriculture shall, from 

 the lands of India, put a larger total of wealth into circula- 

 tion every year. Agricultural experts are unanimously 

 of opinion that the average yield of produce per acre in 

 India could be doubled, and in many parts even trebled ; 

 and the effects of this in providing cheaper food and 

 cheaper clothing for the whole population, and in setting 

 free labor for the manufacture of machinery and of luxuries, 

 would be almost beyond the imagination. The result would 

 be the raising of the standard of living to that of 

 a European country. It is essential, therefore, that the 

 tenancy policy should aim at increasing the gross produce 

 of the soil to the utmost. 



This great economic advance has to be achieved by the 

 investment of a great amount of capital in the land, and 

 in the livestock and implements of agriculture, and by the 

 diffusion of knowledge and organization. My contention 

 is that this can best be effected through the agency of the 

 landlords who should be stimulated and assisted to* develop 

 their estates. 



Proceeding, therefore, to consider the economic develop- 

 ment of estates we may adopt the following classification 

 of the various ways by which the productive capacity of an 

 estate may be improved : (1) permanent improvements 

 wells, pumping schemes, farm buildings and granaries, silos, 

 drains, fences, etc. (2) establishment of a better tradition 

 of cultivation by " trying out " various new methods and 

 retaining those which succeed, and (3) improving and 

 maintaining the strains of plants and animals by selection 

 and breeding. The economic benefit to the whole country 

 by having these improvements carried out by landlords and 



