FACTOES IN FAEMING 91 



degree of cultivation has not been improved, the cost 

 of the operations has been cheapened, and also that 

 without good cultivation nothing like the full effects 

 of the manure could be secured. Improved seed 

 comes in a bad third, and it is made clear that even 

 such limited advantage can be secured by good seed 

 only when the cultivation and manuring are adequate. 

 Improved rotations are held to have produced little 

 direct results, but have rendered the wasteful practice 

 of the bare fallow unnecessary, and, by adding greatly 

 to the supply of fodder crops, have enabled the 

 farmers to keep more live stock, and so have been an 

 indirect cause of the increase in manure. 



Now in western India it must be remembered 

 that climatic considerations govern the situation to 

 a much greater extent than they do in most other 

 countries. Take the case of the Poona district. Not 

 only does the average annual rainfall vary from 200 

 inches to 30 in the course of 40 miles, and from 30 to 

 less than 20 in the course of another 40 miles, but in 

 a single place the rainfall may be three or four times 

 as much one year as it is in the next. Further, the 

 distribution of the rainfall is as capricious as its 

 quantity. The sowing of the summer crops depends 

 on the rainfall of June and July. During these 

 months the total rainfall may amount to 15 inches, 

 or only to 5. The sowing of the winter crops depends 

 mainly on the rainfall of September and October. 

 During these months the total rainfall may amount 

 to 25 inches, or only to 5. In these circumstances it 



