Miscellaneous. 



270 



[September, 1908. 



strate the results if they are of any practical 

 value, should be the rule. To do this 

 effectively, an experiment station has been 

 located in each well-defined agricultural 

 tract, and the experimental programme is 

 based on a knowledge of the agricultural 

 requirements of the tract which it represents. 

 The demonstration farm has an entirely 

 different purpose, and serves as an object- 

 lesson to introduce the ordinary cultivator 

 to incorporate into his farm practice the 

 teaching of the station. No difficulty has 

 been found in inducing a cultivator to lend 

 a suitable piece of land. This should not be 

 larger than the purpose demands, and which 

 the assistant in charge can efficiently manage ; 

 a small area carefully cultivated is much 

 better than a larger area inefficiently 

 managed. In some cases, with a thoroughly 

 keen and efficient cultivator, it is safe 

 to rely upon him to supply the bullocks, 

 labour and other requirements, but in 

 most cases it is much better for the 

 assistant to be as independent as possible of 

 local assistance and to supply him with his 

 own bullocks and implements, and with funds 

 to employ the requisite labour ; otherwise 

 the demonstration plot is apt to be neglected 

 by the cultivator until the rest of his land has 

 received his attention. An agreement is 

 made with the cultivator for the use of his 

 land, either by payment of a rent or by a 

 share of the produce. Several demonstration 

 farms started in these Provinces have failed 

 to answer the purpose for which they were 

 intended. In some cases they have failed, as 

 they tried to demonstrate what remained to 

 be proved, e.g., that cotton and juar can be 

 profitably grown in the rice tract. In other 

 cases the failure was due to bad management, 

 the assistant in charge having insufficient 

 practical experience of cultivation, even if 

 possessed of fair theoretical knowledge. This 

 is the greatest difficulty that the department 

 has to cope with at the present time ; 

 assistants are employed who have not been 

 brought up on the land, and who are not, 

 therefore, in sympathy with their work. 

 Even when supervised by more highly quali- 

 fied men, their work is not always satis- 

 factory, for, not knowing when the simple 

 cultural operations are properly performed, 

 their supervision is futile. In the past, for 

 lack of sufficient supervision, these men have 

 been left to do things on their own initiative, 

 and the result has been that under their 

 management demonstration farms have some- 

 times failed in their purpose owing to small 

 mistake in practical working. No assistant 

 should be given a demonstration farm until 

 it is certain that he has a thorough practical 

 knowledge of the work entrusted to him. 

 With more careful supervision and reliable 

 experimental results to work upon, the de- 

 monstration farms started in (Jbhattisgarh 

 last year proved successful. The objects 

 aimed at were (1) to substitute the system of 

 transplanting paddy for the present broad- 



cast sowings, (2) to induce cultivators to 

 utilize to the best advantage the irrigation 

 water lately made available by the construc- 

 tion of Government reservoirs, (3) to grow a 

 second crop after early and medium paddy, 

 and (4) to demonstrate the method of eradi- 

 cating kans grass by means of Ransome's 

 turnwrest plough. A distinct measure of 

 success has been achieved, and the malguzars 

 and cultivators concerned, who at first were 

 apathetic, are now most anxious that these 

 farms should be continued in their villages 

 for another year, so that they may learn still 

 more of the new methods being taught by 

 the agricultural department, whilst applica- 

 tions have been received from several villages 

 to start similar farms. The department has 

 thus gained their confidence in its desire to 

 benefit them and in its power to do so. The 

 out-turns of paddy from the transplanted 

 fields of the demonstration farms and from 

 the adjoining fields of the cultivators, sown 

 broadcast, are shown below : — 



Out-turn of paddy in 

 lbs. per acre. 



Jageshwar Farm 

 Jawaibandha Farm 

 Kholar Farm 



Transplanted 



by the 

 Department. 



3,940 



1,690 



2,880 



Broadcasted 



by 



Cultivators, 

 2,450 

 600 

 1,272 



Even this large increase due to trans- 

 planting does not fairly represent the total 

 value of this demonstration work to the 

 cultivators, for they also followed our 

 example and irrigated their paddy for the 

 first time this year. The cultivators of the 

 villages concerned have thoroughly appre- 

 ciated the value of these farms, and the agri- 

 cultural department has risen considerably 

 in their estimation, so that this year we 

 confidently hope that hundreds of acres will 

 be transplanted where transplanting was un- 

 known before, and this in a tract where the 

 cultivators are notably lazy and slow to 

 adopt improvements. They have already 

 followed our example in transplanting small 

 areas and in irrigating their wheat. The 

 success of these farms was due to the fact 

 that the scheme was carefully devised and 

 the work efficiently supervised by a thorough- 

 ly practical superintendent under proper 

 control. The results obtained appeal all the 

 more to the cidtivators, seeing that the 

 manure and implements, with the exception 

 of the turnwrest plough used for eradicating 

 Jeans, were exactly the same as those used by 

 themselves, so that the results are due to one 

 varying factor in each case. 



Seed farms and seed selection form a part 

 of the work of the agricultural department 

 which readily recommends itself to the culti- 

 vator. The cotton seed farms established in 

 these Provinces have been successful. The 

 cultivators recognize the advantage of using 

 good seed, and a few have already started to 



