540 REPOET — 1891. 



famine, as I have said, never comes, pestilence but rarely, and we have 

 almost forgotten that the fire and sword of the invader or freebooter were 

 for centuries part of the ordinary lot of human kind. Those touching 

 and familiar supplications for deliverance from plague, pestilence and 

 famine, from battle and mui'der, and that peace may be given in our time, 

 have happily lost here that sort of significance which attaches to an 

 attempt to ward off" evils known in all their bitterness by personal and 

 recent experience. In India we are far nearer to the actual conditions 

 of society which existed when that litany was framed upon which oura 

 was largely modelled. In India we have given the land peace ; and that 

 is, indeed, one of the greatest of all agricultural improvements, as any- 

 one knows well enough who has seen on or beyond the Indian north- 

 west frontier ai'med men ploughing their fields, armed shepherds and 

 graziers pasturing their flocks, and the village towers of refuge dotted 

 about the village lands, lest perchance there should come some band of 

 raiders too strong to be dealt with in the open plain. We have given 

 the land peace and must maintain it. That alone is no light task. We 

 must also decide justly those conflicting claims of various sections of 

 the people which have arisen in part from the imposition of civilised rule 

 upon primitive societies and in part from centuries of incessant violence 

 and war ; and we must be prepared to face pestilence and famine, and 

 when they come, to do our best to mitigate their ravages. I do not say 

 that in securing all this we should neglect agricultural chemistry and 

 experimental farms. I only say that in promoting these means of agri- 

 cultural improvement we must not forget their relative importance in 

 view of some of the first duties which Indian Governments have to dis- 

 charge. 



In India three important committees have lately assembled to consider 

 agricultural affairs. A Bombay committee, which i-eported on July 8, 

 1890, recommended an increase in the number of experimental farms, the 

 establishment of cattle farms, and an increased expenditure on seed for 

 distribution and improved machinery and implements. The Madras 

 Government on the 4th of the same month, reviewing the report of the 

 Madras Committee, condemned in some lively sarcasms the operations of 

 the past, noting that the amount of real good secured had been infinitesi- 

 mal, and that the greater part of the money which had been spent on 

 agricultural improvement and education in the Madras Presidency had 

 been thrown away. A project was approved for the estabhshment of 

 combined agricultural schools and farms at or near the headquarters of 

 five representative districts, the College of Agriculture was to be main- 

 tained with some improvements in its course, and the branch of the 

 Agricultural Department which dealt with cattle disease was to be abo- 

 lished. The third committee was held in October 1890 under the presi- 

 dency of Sir Edward Buck. It was mainly the outcome of the mission 

 of Dr. Voelcker, the agricultural chemist to the Rcj^al Agricultural Society 

 of England, who was deputed to India by the Secretary of State to 

 investigate the conditions under which action may usefully be taken in 

 connection with agricultural experiments in that country. The Com- 

 mittee proposed the appointment of an agricultural chemist in India for 

 a term of seven years ; the maintenance in each province of a system of 

 farms for inquiry and experiment ; the better extension of primary 

 education amongst the agricultural classes ; and the combination of 

 instruction in agriculture with the existing course of instruction. In 



