ktiscellaneouk. 



[March 1006. 



the West Indies, where no drought is 

 known comparable to an Indian drought, 

 in ignorance of the fact that tapioca 

 abounded in India, ; drought-resisting 

 grasses from Australia have been widely 

 distributed and have been found to grow 

 with success only on the margin of run- 

 ning streams ; windmills have been im- 

 ported in numbers in tracts where the 

 wind was either excessive or too capri- 

 cious for utilisation ; and the failures 

 of foreign machinery have been innu- 

 merable. 



These cases exemplify the negative 

 benefits that may be expected from the 

 new department. It is something gained 

 to have a safeguard against the com- 

 mission of such errors in future. From 

 the same point of view the Bombay 

 Government require every officer of the 

 Indian Civil Service in their employ to 

 study the elementary problems of Indian 

 agriculture during a short course at 

 Poona. The knowledge thus acquired 

 will not create au agricultural expert, 

 but will enable the officer to avoid egre- 

 gious mistakes, to win the confidence 

 of the people by an intelligent sympathy 

 with their difficulties, and to act as a 

 link between them and the department. 



From these dry administrative details 

 let us turn to the chief products of 

 India and take a brief survey of some of 

 the questions under investigation. The 

 department are somewhat bewildered 

 with the multitude of problems pressed 

 upon their attention, and are fortunate 

 that, in seeking to concentrate their 

 efforts on definite points of the greatest 

 urgency, they have the support of the 

 Royal Society here in London, who have 

 most generously placed their advice and 

 assistance at the service of the Govern- 

 ment of India. Cloves and nutmegs 

 have their own allurement for the 

 specialist, but sugar and wheat are of 

 greater importance to the country. If 

 we are to view these conflicting inter- 

 ests in their proper perspective, a few 

 statistics are indispensable, but as some 

 apology for their introduction let me 

 assure you that they are mere approxi- 

 mations and have no claim to precise 

 accuracy. 



Sugar. 



We will take sugar first, for not only 

 is it the typical product of India from 

 the dawn of history, but it presents to- 

 day every variety of unsolved problem 

 for scientific enquiry. 



India is the undisputed parent of the 

 sugar-cane cultivation of the world. 

 The Greeks mention with astonishment 

 how they saw honey made by the hands 

 of men ; the Arabs carried it to the 

 Mediterranean and Spain} and at the 



famous College of Natural Sciences, at 

 Jundisapur, invented the art of sugar 

 refining. Until the fourteenth century, 

 in this country, we knew no source of 

 sweetness other than honey, and the 

 first recorded imports of sugar took 

 place in 1319. when fifty tons were re- 

 ceived from Venice, and were sold at the 

 price of Is, 9d. per lb., or the equivalent 

 of 21 shillings of our present currency. 



In former days, India exported sugar ; 

 now she imports, roughly, a quarter 

 million tons of refined sugar, valued at 

 about £4 million sterling. The demand 

 which has arisen for refined, in place of 

 unrefined sugar, cannot as yet be 

 supplied by sugar factories in India. 

 Sugar and sweetmeats are the Indian 

 equivalent for the English glass of beer, 

 and consumption increases with pros- 

 perity. It is satisfactory to note that 

 the output of raw sugar is still twenty 

 times as great as these imports, that the 

 price has not been reduced by foreign 

 competition, and that in those British 

 provinces where alone comparison is 

 possible, the statistics show no decrease 

 in the yield. 



There is no crop regarding the cultiva- 

 tion, harvesting, and manufacture of 

 which agriculturists, European and 

 native alike, have so little certain know- 

 ledge. The number of varieties with 

 distinct characteristics is very great ; 

 some require ample irrigation and con- 

 taiu a high percentage of sugar ; others 

 will grow with a minimum of moisture, 

 but give a reduced out-turn ; others, 

 again, are preferred for the hard fibre 

 which resists the attacks of jackals and 

 wild boar. The entomologist studies 

 devices for circumventing the white ant 

 and the sugar-borer pest ; the mycologist 

 investigates the red-rot fungus (Colletro- 

 chicum falcatum) ; while the chemist is 

 required not only to advise on the com- 

 parative value of fertilisers, but also to 

 determine the period of ripening, and 

 the sugar content of different varieties. 

 If sugar is to be refiued, the aid of the 

 chemist is also required in the further 

 processes. 



In all these matters much work has 

 already been done, but much more re- 

 mains. Though canes have been im- 

 ported from all sugar-producingcountries, 

 the distiibution to each tract of the 

 variety best suited to its conditions is 

 far from settled. A great impediment to 

 the industry is the inefficiency of the 

 mill for expressing the juice ; in the 

 United Provinces, where thorough ex- 

 periments have been made to reduce the 

 cost of the native methods of treatment) 

 the conclusion is that the establishment 

 by private enterprise of agencies for the 

 sale, hire, and maintenance in good, 



