92 CLIMATE AND KESOUECES OF 



tinually had this remark made to me five-and-twenty years ago, 

 and hear the same even now. It seems to be forgotten that 

 the natives of Upper India have had no opportunity of judging, 

 not having seen any other system than that handed down to 

 them from their ancestors. If this argument holds good when 

 applied to the agriculture of a country, why not when applied 

 to all the other requirements of the country, its engineering 

 and education for instance ? But if the old systems of agri- 

 culture were to be carried on in every country as handed down 

 from antiquity, all improvement would cease. To be con- 

 sistent, and to carry the system out in other branches of 

 knowledge, would be simply to ignore all progress and 

 invention. But the system of irrigation is new and has been 

 forced on the country. In Rohilcund it was almost unknown 

 fifty years ago. 



Probably irrigation from wells in the Dooab, whence it 

 appears to have spread into Kohilcund, was the result of 

 the supposed benefits of irrigation being continually im- 

 pressed on the natives by European officials, servants of 

 Government, who possessed no real knowledge of agricul- 

 ture. There was an excuse for them, their education did 

 not include agriculture, and they knew no better; they 

 thought irrigation the one thing required, and there was not 

 at that time any evidence of its ill effects. In those days, in 

 England, breaking up the pan was considered injurious; it 

 is only 'lately that the benefits of deeper cultivation of the 

 soil have been fully understood. 



It was said that by breaking up the pan useless barren 

 soil was brought to the surface. Mr. Wren-Hoskyns, how- 

 ever, has since then, in his book " Talpa, or Chronicles of a 

 Clay Farm," shown how the worst-looking soils, apparently 

 barren clays, by exposure to the air become fertile ; and it 

 is now generally acknowledged that nearly all subsoils, how- 



