THE lyrPBOVEMENT IN THE YIELD OF INDIAN WHEAT. 199 



our tilth for wheat is obtained in the hot weather before the mon- 

 soon and never lost afterwards. 



Green maiiurhuj. In getting land in a good state of culti- 

 vation for wheat and in improving its water-holding capacity 

 we have found green manuring with san hemp the best 

 method. After a crop of this is ploughed in green in the mon- 

 soon the land is much more easily worked and less force is requir- 

 ed in ploughing the land after wheat. If after a few crops of 

 wheat we find at Pusa that the supply of organic matter in the 

 soil needs replenishment it will be easy to plough in a green crop 

 of san and bring the land back again withoiit omitting a single 

 wheat crop. 



The methods- of cultivation and soil management we have 

 indicated are capable of adoption throughout the plains with of 

 course any necessar}' local modifications. We believe if these 

 methods were carried oiTt a great increase in crop production 

 would be possible, less water would be required for irrigation and 

 much more would be got out of the Indian monsoon. 



The methods we have adopted are often referred to as dxj 

 farming methods. We prefer to regard them as merely the 

 application of common sense to crop production in the plains. 



VIII. Future Woek. 



It has already been shown that both in the yield and quality 

 of wheat considerable progress has been made at two of the 

 Experiment Stations in India. l!^ew wheats are now available 

 Avhich, if generally cultivated by the people in the way described 

 above, would rapidly raise the c|uality and volume of the wheat 

 exported from India. All this can be done with the means 

 Avithin the reach of the people. All that is recjuired is greater 

 care in cultivation and in the conservation of moisture. In 

 bringing about these improvements ouv first task will be the 

 conversion as it were of the Agricultural Department itself 

 after which the active support of the bureaucracy will naturally 

 follow. At this point the assistance and co-operation of the 

 wheat merchants themselves will be necessary so that whole 



