Miscellaneous \ 



340 



[October, 1909. 



cal advice. Even at the present day- 

 such men are scarce — in 1865 they were 

 non-existent. 



So far back as 1873 the Board of 

 Revenue made the prophetic remark 

 that " the most difficult and important 

 object of study will be the way to in- 

 fluence the ryot." To this day this re- 

 mains the central problem, to solve 

 which these splendid buildings have been 

 erected and our expert staff recruited, 

 I can best give Your Excellencies some 

 idea of what we hope to do at Coimba- 

 tore by briefly describing the prepar- 

 ations we have made to solve this ques- 

 tion. 



The first requisite for influencing the 

 ryot is to ascertain by experiment and 

 research in what respects his methods 

 are faulty, and in what manner they can 

 be improved upon. As Your Excellency 

 so truly said at the laying of the founda- 

 tion-stone of this building, "the first 

 thing which we have to do is by experi- 

 ment and research here to realise what 

 are the proper lines upon which agri- 

 culture be run," 



The ryot is after all a professional 

 farmer of long standing. His methods 

 have been evolved by huudreds of 

 generations taught in the hard school of 

 experience. Were the world in which 

 we live an unchanging one, the ryots' 

 present agricultural practice might per- 

 haps suffice for his own simple needs, 

 but change and development is the law 

 of human existence. Population in- 

 creases ; prices rise and the struggle for 

 life becomes ever more intense. Hence 

 the necessity for securing a larger return 

 from the land. Against the ryots' long 

 and often painful experience we have to 

 pit the resources of physical science. 

 But the elementary problems of plant 

 nutrition in the tropics and the forma- 

 tion of plant food in Indian soil are still 

 awaiting investigation. Light must be 

 thrown on these and similar problems 

 before our advance to the ryot can be 

 based on the sure foundation of know- 

 ledge. The experts of this Institute, 

 however, have been generously equipped 

 by Your Excellency's Government for the 

 struggle, as Your Excellency's inspection 

 of the laboratories will shortly show, 

 and there need, I think, be little fear for 

 the result. The secret of all progress is 

 untiring and unceasing effort, and to 

 use the words employed by the Madras 

 Government in lb54, "if the effort be 

 general, generous and long continued, it 

 will ensure success," 



Although of necessity, time will be 

 required for reaping the fruits of re- 

 search, we are to point with satisfaction 

 to some substantial work already accom- 

 plished. The new sugar canes intro- 



duced into the Godavari Delta by Dr. 

 Bai'ber to combat the fungus disease 

 which was threatening to destroy the 

 sugar industry have been a triumphant 

 success. The new canes have been uni- 

 versally adopted by the ryots, and it is 

 now a difficult matter to find any of 

 the canes which were formerly grown. 

 Introduced into South Arcot, the same 

 canes have in two years gained a firm 

 hold of the district, while their superior 

 qualities have revived the hopes that 

 sugar refining from country grown canes 

 will be added to the list of successful 

 Swadeshi industries. 



Work on the Government farms has 

 shown that much can be and has been 

 done already to improve the cultivation 

 of paddy and cotton, the most important 

 food and industrial crops respectively 

 of this Presidency. Similarly, in regard 

 to ground-nut, pepper, jute, cholum, 

 Indian corn and fodder-crops, much 

 valuable information has been obtained. 



The manuring of paddy and the 

 scientific feeding of cotton are at present 

 receiving the special attention of Mr. 

 Harrison, the Agricultural Chemist, and 

 Dr. Barber, the Economic Botanist, at 

 this Institute. I mention this specific 

 instance to show Your Excellencies the 

 practical spirit in which the experts of 

 the Department are attacking their 

 problems. 



But when research has done its work, 

 and can point with confidence to definite 

 lines of improvement, the problem of 

 how to influence the ryot will have only 

 been half solved. It is in order to 

 provide an efficient Indian agency for 

 taking up the work at this stage and 

 carrying it into the villages and fields 

 that the Agricultural College has been 

 founded. The District Agricultural 

 Associations, some of which have been 

 doing excellent work, are clamouring for 

 such an agency, and Your Excellency is 

 frequently asked to establish new Agri- 

 cultural Stations which for want of 

 qualified men to work them cannot for 

 the present be started. While it is our 

 ultimate hope that experts qualified for 

 Research work will receive at all events 

 part of their training here, it is primarily 

 the practical expert that we hope to 

 produce from the Agricultural College. 

 The course of instruction will last three 

 years, and embrace Chemistry, Botany, 

 Physics, Veterinary Science, Agricul- 

 tural Engineering and General Agri- 

 culture. Twenty students, as already 

 stated, will be admitted each year, 

 making a total of sixty when the 

 College is full. The second batch of 

 students has recently entered the College. 

 When the time comes for the student 

 to receive the Coimbatore Diploma in 



