190 POLICY FOE WESTEKN INDIA 



limited. This would, of course, reduce the profits of 

 cultivation. Again, with the idea of making cattle 

 cheaper for the cultivator, it is often proposed to pro- 

 hibit the export of cattle. This would merely tend 

 to depress the profits of cattle breeding, and the result 

 would be the reverse of what was intended. It is not 

 possible to stimulate agriculture by measures which 

 tend to make one branch after another unprofitable. 

 It is certain that if the organisation of the farmer 

 could be improved some profitable changes in the 

 system of production would result ; but the one must 

 be left to follow naturally from the other. In such 

 matters the farmer is, and must always be, the best 

 judge of what pays him best. 



IV. Where the market for any kind of produce is 

 ruined by fraudulent practices, legislation may be 

 undertaken with advantage to check such practices. 

 An example of such legislation is given in the pro- 

 posal made to regulate the movements of cotton. 



V. To protect the country against the effects of the 

 recurring failure of rain the programme of irrigation 

 works should be pushed on as fast as possible. The 

 pace has been slow, but could be accelerated, and the 

 value of the irrigation works could be greatly en- 

 hanced by the adoption of the policy advocated in the 

 second part of Chapter IV. Apart from the large 

 storage works for irrigation, every effort should be 

 made in the arid tracts to encourage the construction 

 of wells and the pumping of water from rivers where 

 suitable facilities exist. 



