ESTIMATE OF INCREASE OBTAINABLE 103 



an increase of from Rs.4 to Rs.16, per acre, in net 

 return, over the seed which is in ordinary use. 



This concludes the general review of the facts con- 

 nected with the three main factors in agriculture, 

 and the question will arise as to the extent to which 

 practical results have been secured in inducing 

 cultivators to adopt technical improvements which 

 have been proved to give beneficial results. The exact 

 percentages of increase that can be claimed and the 

 exact causes to which they can be ascribed are 

 matters of pleasing speculation, but the difficulties 

 of estimating the increase of outturn have already 

 been mentioned, and organised scientific work on 

 Indian agriculture has been carried on for too short 

 a period and on too modest a scale to make such 

 arithmetical estimates profitable. It is only fifteen 

 years since scientific agricultural investigation in 

 India has been organised so as to admit of continuous 

 effort in any direction, and circumstances have not 

 permitted such rapid development as could have 

 been desired. 



It will, therefore, probably be of more use to en- 

 deavour to fix with some degree of precision the 

 increase of outturn that is reasonably possible with 

 reference to existing physical conditions and to the 

 knowledge of agriculture now available, and then to 

 consider in more general terms what progress in this 

 direction is being achieved. The following table 

 suggests the percentage of increase in crop outturns 

 that might be obtained in various tracts assuming 



