TECHNIQUE 53 



To turn now to the more technical problems of 

 agriculture, it must be admitted that the existing 

 methods of agriculture, sometimes skilful, sometimes 

 careless, usually unnecessarily laborious, show little 

 change or progress. For the most part the cultivator 

 performs his operations by the same methods that his 

 father and grandfather did before him. There are 

 some matters, however, in which a definite change 

 can be noticed. Here, as elsewhere, the plough is the 

 most important agricultural implement. The local 

 wooden plough, though ingenious in design and 

 capable of producing the desired result at a great cost 

 in labour, is not an efficient implement, and it is found 

 that iron ploughs of western pattern will do more 

 effective work with considerably less labour. During 

 the past fifteen years iron ploughs of various patterns 

 have been introduced in large numbers, and keenly 

 taken up by the cultivators. There must now be 

 hundreds of thousands of them at work in the Deccan 

 to the great benefit of the tillage. Efficient tillage is 

 perhaps the most insistent need of the country-side, so 

 that any progress in this direction is very valuable, 

 both as an actual and as a potential gain. 



There are many other matters relating to seed, 

 manure, methods of cultivation and the prevention of 

 plant diseases, with regard to which progress has been 

 achieved by scientific propaganda. These matters 

 will be dealt with in detail in Chapter V. Such pro- 

 gress is not yet general, though the aggregate result 

 is considerable. 



