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ascertaining local conditions, and enquiring of the cultivators 

 themselves if they had any works to suggest which might 

 protect against failure certain tracts. In certain localities, I 

 know of, cultivators have been accustomed to cut across 

 roads and bunds, and a'dmit water into their field, for protec- 

 tion of their crops; they have been fruitlessly applying for 

 years to the District Engineer for a sluice gate here, a channel 

 there- and for permission to open a lock-gate a little earlier 

 or a little later than usual, and so on. Having an eye to the 

 protection of crops officers with rural training will be able 

 to shape their famine programme and their annual programme 

 in the interest of cultivators. How many District Engineers 

 there are who utterly ignore the interest of the cultivator, 

 and who simply look upon questions from a road or a bund 

 point of view only. As Deputy Collectors in charge of Govern- 

 ment estates officers with agricultural training will recognise 

 the position of Government as a model zemindar for the khas 

 mahal raiyats, and they will know how to utilise the " Khas 

 Mahal Improvement Fund" to the best advantage. Govern 

 ment can depend upon their initiating the " khas mahal" 

 tenants under their charge to at least one permanent improve- 

 ment, for which they will be always grateful to Government 

 and to the officers concerned, specially in tunes of famine. If, 

 for instance, they can induce the " khas mahal " tenants under 

 their charge to grow tapioca roots, and teach them to use the 

 roots for food and to extract flour out of them, they will 

 have done some permanent good and they will have saved 

 those tenants perhaps for all times from the jaws of famine. 

 As managers of Court of Wards Estates they will also have 

 ample opportunities of utilising the allotment annually made 

 for agricultural improvements by introducing well-thought 

 out reforms. They will find in most places it is some prac- 

 ticable method of irrigation that the raiyat needs, and, if they 

 can give him a canal here, a well there, a windmill somewhere 

 else, and teach him how to lift water from small depths and 



