DRAINAGE SCHEMES <J7 



agriculture by direct assistance in research, demonstration 

 and distribution of seed, rendering technical advice available 

 and so forth, as is now done on a limited scale by the 

 Agricultural Department, and by agricultural education ; 

 (2) to seek to remove obstacles to the progress of agricul- 

 ture, and (3) to render indirect assistance, as in the matter 

 of finance. The first of these methods requires a great 

 extension of the operations of the Agricultural Department, 

 which is organized at present on a painfully inadequate scale. 

 When one sees the huge organizations which Government 

 creates and maintains for the defence of the country, for 

 the police, the railways, and even the irrigation canals, the 

 conviction grows that the agricultural activities of the State 

 can only be made commensurate with the needs of the 

 country by organizing upon a similar scale a department 

 which shall permeate the whole country, so that it has 

 thousands of stations with officers situated in every paryana 



and even in every group of villages. 



I come next to the indirect State action for the removal 

 of obstacles to improvement. The most important of these 

 has been already indicated I mean the establishment of a 

 Tenancy law carefully thought out with the object of giving 

 inducements both to landlords and cultivators to pursue 

 agricultural improvements to their own advantage. Other 

 lines of progress must be followed, however. The State 

 has assumed responsibility for the supply of water through 

 canals over a large area ; but it has not sufficiently realized 

 the advantages which would accrue from undertaking 

 large drainage schemes in a similar manner, it is true that 

 in certain tracts watered by canals, where the land has tend- 

 ed to become water-logged, the Irrigation Department has 

 devoted much attention to drainage, and important main 

 drains and feeder drains have been constructed. Yet it may 



be confidently said that there are many parts of the country 



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