259 



Miscellaneous. 



in the case of all County Councils which may make application to them in terms 

 of Section 8 of the Technical Instruction Act, 1889, provided the Board are satisfied 

 that such a form of instruction is required by the circumstances of the district. — 

 Board of Agriculture, Leaflet No. 97. 



THE INDIAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 The annual report of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for India, 

 which has jnst reached our hands, possesses several characteristics that give it 

 special interest and distinguish it from the large number of Blue Books annually 

 issued by the Government Press. It tells the story, in fact, of a new and progressive 

 department, and of one which promises to be pre-eminently useful to the people of 

 the country at large. The Government have at last wakened up to the fact that the 

 agriculture of India is capable of improvement, and that to lay out money in the 

 endeavour to bring this improvement about is a good investment. It has taken 

 many years of agitation to bring them to this point. Even when convinced in 

 former days of the utility of trying to improve a special crop like cotton, that con- 

 viction usually disappeared with the particular official who attempted to carry out 

 the policy. Now, however, a permanent department has been created, dating from 

 1901, charged with the sole duty of trying to improve, by investigation and by 

 demonstration, general Indian agriculture. If progress is judged by the money spent 

 in carrying out the Avork, this department has already shown itself very progressive; 

 in 1901-2 thirty thousand rupees sufficed tu sustain it ; in the last year three 

 lakhs do not cover the cost. The work, still in its infancy, undertaken by this 

 department consists in inquiries into the many problems facing cultivators of the 

 land in India, such as the most economical manures, the utilization of sewage on the 

 land, the improvement of sugarcane, the introduction or production of better types 

 of cotton than are now grown, the battling with crop disease, the destruction of 

 dangerous insects, and similar lines of investigation. Already it can point to good 

 results. Egyptian cotton— of higher quality than any indigenous variety— is now an 

 established crop in Sind ; sugarcanes, better than any in cultivation, and tree from 

 disease, are being distributed throughout Madras; while the distribution of high 

 class seed among the cultivators of the North-West has become a regular 

 practice. Some of these results have been obtained by local provincial departments 

 working in connection with the Imperial Department, some by the Imperial 

 Department itself. Of special interest to Bengal is the appointment, announced in 

 the report under review, of an expert to study the improvement of the jute 

 crop. His activities have not yet begun, but this cultivation affords a splendid 

 opening for work of the sort most beneficial to the country. The central station and 

 headquarters of the Imperial Department are situated at Pusa in Behar, on an 

 estate belonging to Government and formerly held as a large stud-farm. Here there 

 is already at work a large staff of chemists, botanists, entomologists, and similar 

 experts, and the farm attached, of over 1,309 acres, affords opportunity for experi- 

 ment of the highest character, such as, we believe, has never been possible in India 

 before. When complete this station will also form the headquarters of higher 

 agricultural education in India, and the beautiful large college iioav being erected 

 will, if it answers its purpose, be the means of training men who will be able to 

 spread the latest and best agricultural methods into every corner of the country. 

 We welcome the inauguration of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, and we 

 heartily congratulate it on its first report. It gives an account of work well started 

 and of the highest promise for the future. If it can only keep as free as it is at 

 present from the trammels of departmentalism and red tape, we have hopes that it 

 will ultimately, directly or indirectly, confer the greatest benefit upon India. 

 - Indian Agriculturist, 



