210 THE DIRECTION OF INDUSTRY 



are reduced to reasonable proportions. The entre- 

 preneur's profits depend upon the relation between 

 the expenses of production and the value of the final 

 product. The quantity and quality of the produce 

 raised from a given patch of land obviously depend 

 upon the intelligence and industry of the agriculturist, 

 and an estimate of the Indian cultivator's agricultural 

 efficiency is necessary to enable us to determine 

 whether, when freed from the pressure of adverse 

 economic conditions, he will be able to procure for 

 himself an abundant livelihood, and surround himself 

 with the opportunities for the full exercise of his 

 various faculties. Upon the question of the efficiency 

 of the Indian peasant's agricultural methods there can 

 be no better testimony than that of a European expert 

 like Dr. Voelcker, an agricultural chemist who was 

 engaged by the Government to investigate the subject. 

 ' On one point,' he writes, ' there can be no question 

 that the ideas generally entertained in England, and 

 often given expression to even in India, that Indian 

 agriculture is, as a whole, primitive and backward, 

 and that little has been done to try and remedy it, are 

 altogether erroneous. It is true that, no matter what 

 statement may be made, as deduced from the agri- 

 culture of one part, it may be directly contradicted by 

 reference to the practice of another part ; yet the 

 conviction has forced itself upon me that, taking every- 

 thing together, and more especially considering the 

 conditions under which Indian crops are grown, they 

 are wonderfully good. At his best the Indian culti- 

 vator is quite as good and in some respects the 

 superior of the British farmer; whilst at his worst it 

 can only be said that this state is brought about 

 largely by an absence of facilities for improvement 

 which is probably unequalled in any other country, 

 and that the peasant will struggle on patiently and 

 uncomplainingly in the face of difficulties in a way 

 that no one?elsehvould.' 



