Miscellaneous, 



256 



[March, 1910. 



sanguine view of the prospects of this 

 country as a producer of the materials 

 of manufacture. But it is equally certain 

 that the development of its resources 

 will be a slow process, and that it is 

 unreasonable to expect immediate results 

 from Departments which are as yet in 

 their infancy. In the first place, the 

 officers of these Departments must them- 

 selves go through a more or less lengthy 

 process of study before they can under- 

 take to teach those who are pursuing 

 agriculture according to the methods 

 which embody the experience and tradi- 

 tions of centuries. The possibilities- of 

 improvement can only be realised by 

 those who have familiarised themselves 

 with existing conditions. This may 

 seem a truism, but in reality it is a truth 

 which was discovered as the result of 

 costly and humiliating failures. Further, 

 when improvements suggest themselves 

 their practical value must be tested by 

 a series of experiments. A case in point 

 is that of the hybridisation of cotton. 

 Experiments, says Mr. Mollison, " have 

 brought to light some new ideas which, 

 however, requires confirmation. The 

 crosses at the Surat farm have been 

 found to be undergoing considerable 

 variation. Although their lints have a 

 relative advantage in quality over the 

 ordinai-y Surat cotton, the ginning per- 

 centage is steadily falling (the percent- 

 age has fallen from 36-9 to 30*3 

 during the last five years)," Here is an 

 instance of an apparently successful im- 

 provement. The lints of the Surat 

 hybrids have been valued at fiom 5 to 

 10 per cent, above fine Broach, Yet, if 

 the hybrids had been officially recom- 

 mended for adoption without adequate 

 trial, it is easy to see that the effect 

 would have been to discredit scientific 

 agriculture in the minds of the culti- 

 vators concerned for some time to come, 

 Nor is this the only example of the 

 necessity of patient observation which 

 the cotton-growing industry supplies. 

 There was good reason to expect that 

 Egyptian cotton would flourish in Sind, 

 but, says Mr. Mollison, " it is disappoint- 

 ing to have to record a set-back in 

 the expectations previously formed," and 

 the conclusion now arrived at is that 

 "unless cultivation is improved and 

 sufficient flow irrigation is obtained as 

 early as March-April there is no likeli- 

 hood of Egyptian cotton being estab- 

 lished as a general field crop in Sind." 

 No one could have foreseen this failure, 

 which has been due mainly to the disin- 

 clination of the ryots to carry out the 

 rules necessary for success. Even for 

 assured negative results time is required. 

 It was only after years of observation 

 that the Imperial Department of Agri- 



culture were able to state that, in spite 

 of the enthusiastic claims put forward 

 on behalf of tree cottons, their place as a 

 field crop is " very limited." But, 

 though progress is necessarily slow, 

 benefits to agriculture are already 

 accruing from the great variety of 

 scientific research. The causes of destruc- 

 tive blights have been discovered, and in 

 some instances an effectual remedy has 

 been provided. Thus, the campaign 

 against the palm disease " has been 

 particularly successful and is still being 

 prosecuted earnestly by means of special 

 staff sanctioned by the Madras Govern- 

 ment." Mr, Mollison adds:— "I must 

 note the fact that the results of this 

 enquiry by Dr. Butler are so valuable 

 to India that they are equivalent to 

 saving the cost of his section to India 

 for many years to come." We should be 

 disposed to say thac Mr. Lefroy's book 

 on "Indian Insect Pests" is almost 

 enough in itself to justify the existence 

 of his section, for, when the information 

 which this work contains is brought 

 home to the ryot, it will effect the saving 

 of many lakhs of rupees. The creative 

 departments have been as fruitful as 

 those engaged in saving the crops from 

 injury or destruction. It may fairly be 

 said that there is scarcely a district in 

 which the possibility of growing a new 

 crop has not been examined or tested by 

 experiment. The list of promising 

 ventures would run to a great length, 

 ranging as they do from cattle-breeding 

 to poultry-farming and bee-keeping, and 

 from the remarkable efforts to resus- 

 citate the indigo industry to the im- 

 provement of the sugar cane aud of 

 tobacco. 



GREEN DRESSINGS AND THEIR 

 APPLICATION. 



The Effect on the Buried Plants. 



(From the Agricultural Neivs, Vol. 

 VIII., No. 189, July 4, 1909.) 



The practice of the application of 

 green dressings to soils is one which has 

 existed from the earliest times ; in fact, 

 the first records of any rules which have ' 

 been made for the regulation of agricul- 

 tural operations show unmistakably 

 that the value of burying green plants 

 in the soil for the benefit of future crops 

 was fully recognised many centuries 

 ago. That this conclusion, reached em- 

 pirically though it was, is not at fault, 

 has been proved again and again by the 

 most rigid methods of modern scientific 

 investigation. Thus a feeling of secu- 

 rity in the following of the practice has 



