Feb. 1908.] 



145 



Miscellaneous. 



spite of all obstacles, important changes 

 did take place ; and in proportion as 

 India has been brought more and more 

 closely within the influence of the forces 

 that are binding the world together in 

 an universal community of commerce, 

 the rapidity of these changes has been 

 greatly intensified. 



Ancient Agriculture. 



Agriculture did not bulk largely in the 

 earliest historical account of the trade of 

 India, for we read that the Phoenician 

 pilots of the fleets of King Solomon 

 brought, from India, gold and silver, 

 ivory, apes, and peacocks. To the 

 Romans, India furnished diamonds and 

 pearls, silk, and spices, such as frankin- 

 cense, cassia, and cinnamon for funeral 

 ceremonies and the worship of the gods. 

 In the Arab and Mogul period, cotton 

 and sugarcane had come to the front ; 

 three hundred years ago, pepper, spices 

 and indigo aroused the rivalry of the 

 Dutch, Portuguese and English mer- 

 cantile companies. A century ago, the 

 exports of the East India Company 

 comprised cotton, silk, wool, gum, spices, 

 indigo, and coffee, and were valued by 

 them at £2^ million sterling. 



Last year the exports amounted to 

 £105 millions, of which jute and tea— two 

 new products discovered in the course 

 of last century— accounted for £20 

 millions and £6 millions respectively ; 

 and other chief items were cotton £24 

 millions, rice £12 millions, wheat £6 

 millions. 



To the general rule that Hindu Govern- 

 ments paid little attention to agriculture, 

 one important exception must be made. 

 In Southern India irrigation was fostered 

 by the remarkable system of tanks or 

 reservoirs for the storage of water, and 

 by the construction of anicuts in the 

 deltas of the Madras rivers. In the 

 dearth of historical memorials of Hindu 

 rulers, the origin of these works has 

 been forgotten; but the river canals 

 can only have been undertaken by rich 

 and powerful princes, while the storage 

 reservoirs were probably created by- 

 village communities or wealthy critizens 

 as acts of charity. In former days it 

 was the custom for the local banker to 

 ease his conscience, and seek the bless- 

 ings of posterity by lavish expenditure 

 on the provision of water and shade for 

 the benefit of his village. With the 

 modern assumption by the State of 

 responsibility for these objects, and the 

 new sense of security for the trans- 

 mission of property by inheritance, this 

 custom has fallen into abeyance. The 

 motive, however, which inspired these 

 benevolences, whether we call it public 

 spirit or private charity, is not dead 



and if it could be brought forth once 

 more into active operation, its effect on 

 the promotion of agriculture would be 

 incalculable. 



Mohammedan Period. 



Let us now turn to the period of the 

 Mohammedan domination from the 

 twelfth to the seventeenth centuries. 



The Moslem invaders, sweeping: over 

 many countries, showed a genuine appre- 

 ciation of the good things in each, and 

 carried out a most useful interchange of 

 methods and products. Prom the Euph- 

 rates and the Tigris they introduced 

 into northern India and the Deccan the 

 system of irrigation canals. Wherever 

 they went, they either imported or im- 

 proved the cotton-plant and the sugar- 

 cane. In considering the claims of the 

 Mogul Emperors to fame, we are apt to 

 regard exclusively their military and 

 administrative achievements, the splen- 

 dour of their court, and the magnificence 

 of their architecture ; and to overlook 

 the credit they deserve for their intelli- 

 gent patronage of agriculture and irriga- 

 tion. But the great Baber— the contem- 

 porary of our Henry VIII. — in his fascin- 

 ating autobiography tells us himself 

 of the interest he took in the trans- 

 ference of sugar-cane from one tract to 

 another, and in the cultivation of fruit 

 orchards ; Jehangir again, in his me- 

 moirs, makes a special mention of the 

 introduction of tobacco, although in 

 terms of disapproval ; and from the 

 records of Akbar we learn of the impor- 

 tation from Persia of agricultural ex- 

 perts. It is common knowledge that the 

 English administration is closely model- 

 led on the Mogul prototype, but it is 

 interesting to find a precedent for the 

 latest creation of English genius, the 

 Department of Agriculture ; and it is 

 even possible that, if success is to be 

 attained in the experiments now in 

 progress for the cultivation in Sind and 

 the Western Punjab of Persian dates, we 

 may have to send to Persia for the 

 lineal descendants of Akbar's scientific 

 gardeners. 



It is wholly unnecessary for me to 

 remind you of the royal encouragement 

 to agriculture in this conntry, but in 

 India his gracious Majesty's example 

 does not as yet find many imitators. In 

 Hindu States the ethics of rule do not 

 inculcate this duty, and in Mohammedan 

 States the teaching of the Koran, that 

 agriculture is of divine origin, receives 

 scanty recognition. It is true that, when 

 his Majesty as Prince of Wales founded 

 the Imperial Institute for the develop- 

 ment of agriculture throughout the 

 Empire, liberal donations were obtained 

 from India, but we hear little in India 



