MINUTES OF EVIDKNCE. 



•work done for India by Ke.T. It may be said with con- 

 fidence that there is no country of which the vegetable 

 resources have been so elaborately detailed. 



Kevv is constantly called upon to advise the Secretary 

 of State for India in Council upon technical questions 

 of the widest range relating to the material aevelop- 

 uient of India. During the present year the Director 

 of Kew has been requested to report upon the education 

 of Indian Forest Officers. The following i)aper will 

 serve as an example of the nature and responsibility oi 

 this branch of Kew work: — 



Notes of a meeting held at the India Office under 

 orders of the 14th June, 1900 (R. and S. Xo. 1663, 

 1900). 



At the instance of Mr. Denzil Ibbetson, lately a 

 member of the Government of India, a meeting was 

 held to discuss the request of the Government of India, 

 that a scientific expert in agriculture should be selected 

 for the otfice of Inspector-General of Agriculture in 

 India. The request was made in April, 1897 (Ko. 

 1396/97) ; but at that time the Secretary of State was 

 unable to find a candidate possessing the necessary 

 qualifications (No. 2360/97). Mr. Ibbetson had been 

 authorised to represent them in the matter and to at- 

 tempt to find a suitable candidate. The meeting was 

 attended by Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, Sir George King, 

 Mr. Denzil Ibbetson, Professor Somerville, Sir C. E. 

 Bernard, and took place on the 3rd July at noon. Most 

 of the members .were convers-ant witih the question, and 

 had seen the Government of India letter of April, 1897. 

 But, as Dr. Somerville had not seen the papers, the 

 objects of the meeting were briefly explained. It was 

 said that agriculture was by far the greatest of India's 

 interests and industries ; that 70 to 80 per cent, of the 

 people lived by agriculture ; and that the people had 

 an ancient system of agriculture of their own full of 

 practical wisdom. The Government of India had for 30 

 years attempted in a fitful way to promote the improve- 

 ment of agriculture. New staple crops had been intro- 

 duced, old staples had been developed ; but these ad- 

 vances were greatly due to increasing trade and to the 

 improvement of means of communication. Model 

 farms, experimental farms had been opened and 

 worked and often closed. But it was difiicult to say 

 that any scientific improvements had really been 

 grafted upon Indian systems of agriculture, or that ex- 

 perience gained at experimental farms had radiated 

 into the districts round. Of all the many agricultural 

 machines and appliances that had been carried into 

 India, one only, the Beheea sugar mill, had been 

 adopted by the people ; and of that machine (or its 

 imitations) hundreds of thousands were now used by 

 the people. 



Eleven years ago the Indian Government took the im- 

 portant step of sending out from England a well-known 

 agricultural chemist. Dr. Augustus Voelcker, io report 

 upon the improvement of Indian agriculture. Dr. 

 Toelcker's report was known to the members of the 

 meeting ; and perhaps the jnost important teaching of 

 that report was that Indian agricultural systems and 

 methods were usually good and suitable ; and that the 

 wisest course would be. not to subvert those systems 

 and methods, not to substitute western methods, but to 

 apply scientific knowledge to the improvement of exist- 

 ing systems which were based on the practical experi- 

 ence of many generations. 



With reference to the choice of an Inspector-General 

 of Agriculture, it was mentioned that though the Go- 

 vernment of India was the supreme power in the land, 

 yet the country was administered, the people were in- 

 fluenced, improvements were initiated and prosecute 1 

 by the local governments and their ofiBicers, subject to 

 the control ^nd direction of the Government of India. 

 An officer under the Government of India could not be 

 a Director of Agriculture ; he would be Inspector- 

 General ; his function would be to influence and guide 

 the local governments and their agricultural officers. 

 That kind of organisation had been adopted with im- 

 mense success in the Forest Department. Forty years 

 ago there was no Forest Department, and no scientific 

 forestry except in Burma. Dr. Brandis was called 

 from Burma to India ; he visited forests in all pro- 

 vinces ; with the support of the Supreme Governmenli 

 he organised a forest staff in every province ; he in- 

 fluenced the local governments and their officers ; he 

 procured the introduction of scientific forestry all over 

 the vast Government forests ; and now the Indian 



torests yield a yearly surplu'J revenue of more than 

 iialf a million pounus, while the Forest Departiueni is 

 preventing unscientihc waste, anu is aamuustering as 

 well as conserving 80,000 square miles oi forests, for 

 the benefit of present and tuture generations. Whatj 

 the Inspector-General of Forests has done it is hoped 

 and believed the Inspector-General of Agriculture will 

 also do in his department. 



Mr. Denzil Ibbetson said it was true that the 

 GoNemmont of iiidia, thuugu tiiey itco^insea the iin- 

 lueiise importance of agriculture to the country and the 

 people, liad postponed agricultural reform partly 

 because of the inherent difficulty of the matter, and 

 partly because they wished first to get the land records 

 system into thorough working oraer. This had now 

 been done, and the Government desired actively, syste- 

 matically, and perseveringly to take up the improve- 

 ment of agriculture. Dr. \'uelcker's report hau laid 

 down the lines in which this could best be done. It 

 was the very best feature of Dr. Yoelcker's report that, 

 after a comparatively short experience of the country, 

 he decided that the true path of improvement lay, not 

 in subverting Indian agricultural methods, but in de- 

 veloping and improving them by the light of scientific 

 kno'ivleilge. IMr. Ibbetscn's view was that an Inspector- 

 General of Agriculture coming to India, would, for 

 some time at any rate, have to learn more than teach. 

 Until he was acquainted with Indian systems and 

 methods, and had realised their merits, he would be 

 little able to develop and improve them. Mr. Ibbetson 

 had obtained leave to convene the present meeting in 

 order that he might, on beha'i of the Government of 

 India, obtain advice and asalstancj in selecting the 

 best possible man. for the office of Inspector-General ot 

 Agriculture. 



Sir William Thiselton-Dyer paid a warm tribute to 

 Dr Yoelcker's report ; he regarded the work as a 

 most remarkable instance of how a truly scientific man 

 recognised the merits and the value of unscientific 

 methods of agriculture, the outcome of ages and genera- 

 tions employed in working out practical problems. This 

 question of Indian agriculture was most serious. The 

 British Government m India had to face the problem 

 how the vast population of India, increasing at the rate 

 of two millions a year, were to be fed. India required, 

 a more intensive agriculture. We saw many backward, 

 countries, which sent food to England, satisfied with 

 9 to 12 bushels of wheat per acre ; while the English 

 farmer was not satisfied unless he got 30 bushels per 

 acre. The English results were due partly to manuring 

 and high farming. The Indian peasants could not 

 afford, could not obtain manure. But there were other- 

 ways of improving the yield of land. We had seen 

 sandy wastes in Prussia rendered fertile by growing 

 successive nitrogen-accumulating crops. Possibly the 

 yield of Indian lands might be systematically improved 

 by ploughing in or by a rotation of leguminous crops. 

 This was only an instance how scientific knowledge 

 might be applied. At the same time it would be the 

 greatest mistake to substitute for Indian agricultural 

 practices western methods merely because they had 

 succeeded in the west. For instance, it had been urged 

 that Indian cultivation would be vastly improved by 

 deeper ploughing. A Madras agriculturist, a pupil of 

 Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer's, had made careful experiments, 

 and claimed to have proved that deep ploughing yielded 

 crops rnore tolerant of drought than shallow ploughing 

 in similar adjacent soil, and under the same circum- 

 stances. This seemed a startling and so far a satisfac- 

 tory demonstration. But on the other hand it was 

 shown that in most parts of India the land was infested 

 by long-rooted grasses. So long as these grasses did 

 not get their roots below the pan underlying the surface 

 soil scratched by the native ploughs every year, it was 

 comparatively easy to get rid of the weeds. But if the 

 pan was loosened by deep ploughing, the long roots of 

 the noxious grasses penetrated, and it became most 

 difficult for the Indian peasant to eradicate them with 

 the means and funds at his disposal. The problem in 

 India was how best to graft the results of scientific 

 agricultural knowledge on to the stock (the really 

 valuable stock) of Indian agricultural practice and ex- 

 perience. 



It had been said by Mr. Ibbetson that the Govern- 

 ment of India had intentionally postponed earnest 

 systematic effort after agricultural improvement to 

 other (no doubt important) reforms. This being so it 

 was needless to go back upon the past, and he (Sir W. 



Sir W. T. 

 Tkiselton- 



Dyer, 

 K.C.M.G., 



F.R.S. 



29 Nov. 1900. 



