Miscellaneous, 



232 



[March 1908. 



to-day ; while in the Bombay Presidency 

 where five distinct vernacular languages 

 are spoken, English is the only possible 

 lingua [franca. Moreover, English edu- 

 cation has so pervaded this Presidency 

 that it is no longer the monopoly of the 

 professional classes ; and, as a matter of 

 fact, of the Poona students, the majority 

 had hereditary associations with the 

 possession of land. 



Organisation. 



The new policy demands a consider- 

 able increase of expenditure. In the 

 Bombay Presidency, in place of an 

 annual Budget of £3,000 which was 

 chiefly devoted to the tabulation of agri- 

 cultural statistics, there is now a Budget 

 of £35,000. I have not access to the 

 figures in other provinces, but an esti- 

 mate of an increase for all India from 

 £10,000 to £200,000 would not be far from 

 the mark. When the schemes for the 

 creation of the Department were laid 

 before the Legislative Councils of the 

 Government of India and of all the 

 provinces, no adverse criticism was 

 heard from any quarter. No projects, 

 not even proposals for the remission of 

 taxation, have ever been greeted with 

 greater unanimity of approval from the 

 representatives of Indian public opinion ; 

 and, indeed, if we compare the allotment 

 wi th the size of the country, or the scope 

 of the operations of the Department, it 

 ceases to appear extravagantly liberal. 

 Our American friends, who spend 

 £2,300,000 a year on their department, 

 and are satisfied that they get their full 

 value for their money, would regard it 

 as a very humble beginning. 



The organisation of the department is 

 as follows :— At the head stands the 

 Inspector-General of Agriculture to the 

 Government of India ; whose functions 

 are to advise the Government on all 

 agricultural questions, to superintend 

 the work of the Research Institute, 

 established at Pusa, in Bengal, and to 

 observe the operations of the several 

 provincial departments, with a view to 

 their co-ordination. 



The Research Institute, at Pusa, is an- 

 nounced to be primarily concerned with 

 " the solution of the fundamental prob- 

 lems of tropical agriculture." The staff 

 comprises European scientists in agricul- 

 tural chemistry and botany, entomology, 

 horticulture, mycology, and plant phy- 

 siology ; and a number of native assist- 

 ants in these sciences, 



Each local Government has a separate 

 provincial department in the charge of a 

 Director appointed from the Indian 

 Civil Service, who advises his Govern- 

 ment, admiusters the department, and 

 keeps it in touch with the officers of. the 



revenue, forest, irrigation, and other 

 cognate departments and most import- 

 ant of all— interprets its work to the laud- 

 owner and the cultivator. 



Under the Director there is the educa- 

 tional work of the College of Agriculture 

 and the executive work of the experi- 

 mental stations. For the latter purpose 

 the province is divided into two or more 

 citcles, each under the supervision of an 

 European agricultural expert, styled the 

 Deputy-Director. This officer studies 

 the crops of chief importance in his 

 circle, and the local conditions and 

 methods. In the botanical and chemical 

 problems involved he has the assistance 

 of the professors of the college. His pro- 

 gramme of experiments is drawn up in 

 consultation with them and is annually 

 subjected to criticism by the Board of 

 Agriculture. This Board includes the 

 whole agricultural staff of India, and 

 meets in conference once a year ; by the 

 interchange of information and criticism 

 it is hoped to secure continuity in the 

 experiments and to avoid unnecessary 

 duplication and repetition of enquiries. 



In the Bombay Presidency, where five 

 years ago there were three experimental 

 stations, there are now thirteen. Each 

 is in charge of a native officer of good 

 education who has been specially trained 

 in the department. Two of the farms, 

 which are intended to serve as seed 

 farms for the distribution of selected 

 seed of cotton and millet, have areas of 

 over 200 acres ; the rest vary in size from 

 20 to 75 acres, 



Administration. 

 Up to date the work of the depart- 

 ment has been chiefly, in the most literal 

 sense, preliminary spade work ; the pre- 

 paration of the farms for experiments. 

 The impatient reformer who seeks for 

 revolutions in India will meet with dis- 

 appointment in Indian agriculture as in 

 other fields of activity. Some advocate 

 the establishment of agricultural asso- 

 ciations in every district, and demand, 

 as is the way of the East, that Govern- 

 ment should finance their operations ; 

 others suggest that to every school there 

 should be attached a farm or garden, 

 not merely as a useful guide to Nature- 

 study, but for the demonstration of new 

 crops and methods. Such measures 

 would throw open the door to lavish 

 waste of money, and in many cases prove 

 wholly mischievous. 



The difficulty of securing the judicious 

 treatment of a new plant or method can 

 be appreciated by all who have tried to 

 introduce an exotic into their gardens 

 under the care of an old-fashioned 

 gardener, but where the problem com* 

 prebends also the application of an un« 



