Miscellaneous. 



550 



[June, 1912. 



spread of Cambodia or American Cotton 

 in Tinnevelly, Ramnad, and Madura dis- 

 tricts in the last few years is a most 

 encouraging sign that a really good new 

 crop can be introduced very rapidly. 



" For introducing such improvements 

 as can already be safely recommended we 

 need more trained men. To remove the 

 difficulty of want of knowledge, we 

 want more workers in the field of 

 research. Ample facilites have been pro- 

 vided for both purposes at Coimbatore. 

 As I have pointed out on a recent occas- 

 ion, the prospects from a pecuniary 

 point of view are not to be despised, 

 especially when it is remembered that 

 the department is a new and expanding 

 one. For a man of means who is on the 

 look-out for an interesting and useful 

 career I cannot imagine one which has 

 more attractions. 



" What I would ask our critics to 

 bear in mind is this. It is far from easy 

 to point to positive improvements suit- 

 able for any particular village without 

 knowledge of the locality, We are often 

 pressed to send itinerant lecturers broad- 

 cast through the villages and it is 

 assumed that qualified lecturers are 

 to be had at a moment's notice and that 

 agriculture can be taught by lectures in 

 the same way that law or arithmetic is 

 taught. Agriculture is an applied 

 science, and its application must vary in 

 a great or less degree with every small 

 variation Of local conditions. Lecturers 

 on the general principles of agriculture 

 would be useless to ryots who are not 

 used to deducing their practice from 

 theory. The only thing which appeals 

 to them is definite advice. If a new 

 crop is to be recommended to them, the 

 exact kind of soil suitable for it, the 

 exact time to sow it, the exact method 

 of cultivation must be laid down, and if 

 the advice given is, owing to any special 

 circumstances in the village, impractic- 

 able, the cultivator will conclude that 

 his would-be adviser does not know his 

 business and will not listen to him. 



" And it is absurd to blame him for 

 this attitude. He cannot afford to 

 engage in an experiment. You will see, 



therefore, how it is not possible for a 

 lecturer to start- to-night from Mylapore 

 and lecture to the ryots of Ganjam on 

 paddy cultivation if he has not been 

 there before and does not know the local 

 practices and seasons. We must in 

 short learn before we can teach, and we 

 must not blame the cultivators if they 

 are somewhat hard to persuade. Time 

 and patience will overcome both diffi- 

 culties. The essential thing is to avoid 

 giving ill-considered advice which would 

 retard all progress indefinitely." 



INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



(Bulletin of Agricultural Statistics — 

 January 1912). 



The January number, which com- 

 mences the third volume of the Bulletin 

 of Agricultural Statistics has been pub- 

 lished to-day by the International Insti- 

 tute of Agriculture, (Villa Umberto I, 

 Rome). 



The figures referring to the cereal 

 harvest in the Southern Hemisphere, are 

 the same as those published last month, 

 with the addition of a few data of the 

 probable harvest area. 



A small table giv^s the areas sown to 

 wheat, rye, barley and oats during the 

 past autumn. 



The areas sown to wheat, compared 

 with the areas sown during the corres- 

 ponding period of 1910 are as follows : 

 Belgium 104 %, Spain 95 %, France 1121 %, 

 Great Britain 106 %, Canada 97'1 %, 

 United States 987 %, India 99 %. Sowing, 

 which is now finished, was done, on the 

 whole, under good conditions, and 

 germination is uniform. 



The final returns of the cereal harvest 

 in 1911 are given for Norway, Sweden 

 and Canada. In the latter country the 

 wheat harvest is given as 58,746,008 quin- 

 tals, and oats as 53,697,553 quintals being 

 143-9% and 107-6% respectively of the 

 previous ysar's crops. 



Figures for the production of wine in 

 the whole of France have now been 

 received, and show a total production. 



