11 



live from hand to mouth. It is no wonder, therefore, that there 

 is a deep-rooted feeling among the young men looking for a living, 

 and for the well-to-do amongst our countrymen, seeking for a 

 good investment of their capital, that "agriculture does not pay 

 in India." There are a good many instances, however, of people 

 making money by horticulture, floriculture, kitchen-garden- 

 ing, poultry and dairy farming in the neighbourhood of big 

 towns. Of course in the culture of field crops, the pulses, and 

 cereals, where individual skill does not come much into play, 

 and where there is no great scope for specialised knowledge, 

 the chances of making large profits are minimised. But the 

 case is quite different in the production of such crops, as tobacco, 

 tea, etc., which pass through various stages, and require expert 

 and scientific handling before they are put on the market. We 

 have quite a number of tea plantations, working successfully in 

 India at the present time ; and we had a good many indigo planta- 

 tions a few decades ago. But there is no tobacco plantation 

 worth its name in India, working with improved machinery, and 

 on up-to-date scientific principles ; although tobacco is one of our 

 principal crops, and the annual outturn of tobacco in India is 

 greater than that in any other country in the world, except the 

 Tnited States. Of course we cannot expect to make such fabulous 

 profits by the growing and curing of tobacco in India, as in the 

 plantations of Sumatra and the Yuelta Abajo regions of Cuba, 

 because our soil and climatic conditions are not as favourable as 

 in those islands. But still there are imimnsc possibilities, and it 

 is high time that the attention of our enterprising capitalists be 

 drawn to this much neglected crop of India, which plays quite an 

 important part in the economic condition of our country. 



Victor X. Xvravw 

 Tin-: I'u.u'K, 

 Couth Hi-lmr, ijlh Jidic 1015. 



