94 CLIMATE AND RESOURCES OF 



formerly, when the land was highly fertile, leads to diminished 

 results, which are comparatively retrogressive. 



The proportion of produce to seed sown is steadily dimi- 

 nishing, and probably the average produce of lands that are 

 unirrigated, or have been irrigated from canals for ten years, 

 does not exceed fivefold the seed sown. 



The reason of the backward state of agriculture in Upper 

 India is plain. No literate natives take to farming as a pro- 

 fession. Nearly all the zemindars, many of them literate 

 men, retain some land in their own hands ; but it is merely 

 as a convenience they do not farm for a livelihood. There 

 are no literate tenants. If a man of the ryot or tenant class 

 becomes proficient in reading and writing, he thinks farming 

 infra dig., and tries to get some appointment where reading 

 and writing are all that is wanted, or where less physical 

 exertion is required than in the prosecution of agricultural 

 operations. The educated natives of Upper India look to 

 reading and writing for a livelihood. Numbers study with 

 the hope of getting an appointment, with some steady emolu- 

 ments, in which they may pass their lives. Caste prejudices 

 have given way in many cases, as notably in the cases of 

 Hindoos of high caste, who have studied medicine and 

 surgery. These men have studied anatomy and practised 

 dissection, which is repulsive to Hindoo ideas, with the view 

 of qualifying as native doctors and earning a livelihood. 

 There is no caste prejudice against agriculture, all castes 

 engage in it ; but those who subsist by agriculture are the 

 poorest of the classes to which they belong. A ten- acre farm 

 held by one person would be considered in many parts of 

 Upper India a large holding. Several members of a family 

 or several friends will conjointly take a greater breadth of 

 land, but the land is generally let in very small holdings. 

 There are no tenants of any decent status in society or of 



