On the Conditions of WIieat-G^rowing in India. 
9 
whicli the Bengal jute-mills have competed with Dundee, and 
iu the keen spirit of rivalry with which the Bombay cotton-mills 
are disputing with Manchester in the Asiatic markets. Far 
more will depend in the future on the growth of our cotton, 
jute, woollen, paper, and other mills, than on the demands of 
Europe for Indian wheat. Thoughtful men in India are be- 
ginning to speak in an undertone of India's agricultural pro- 
sperity as her greatest source of weakness. But it is an open 
question whether Europe would suffer most under the importa- 
tion of a large surplus of cheap agricultural produce, or in 
having the Indian market closed to European goods through 
the gi-owth of local industries. 
Were it necessary, a number of illustrations could be given 
to demonstrate the existence of a considerable wheat-cultivation 
in India one hundred years ago ; and were it desired to carry 
the evidences of an Indian wheat-cultivation into even earlier 
periods, it might be remarked that by following the line of 
reasoning adopted by M. de Candolle in his " Origin of Cultivated 
Plants," the existence of Sanskrit names both for the grain 
and the plant might be cited in proof of an Indian cultivation 
perhaps reaching to the remotest antiquity. "While not desiring 
to throw doubt on the importance often attached to a classical 
name, we in India are frequently brought face to face with 
striking modern adaptations of ancient names. There can be 
no doubt, however, but that wheat has been cultivated for many 
centuries in certain provinces of India, if not as a staple crop, 
at least as one of some importance, though there is not much 
evidence to show that a very extensive system of selection of 
seed has been practised. 
The study both of wheat and of rice will be found to lead 
to the startling conclusion, that almost from time immemorial 
the owners of a certain holding — father to son — have gone on 
cultivating from the same stock. This explains the presence, 
within a comparatively limited area and on almost identical 
soils, of a large number of forms of both cereals. Indeed, the 
dififerentiation is sometimes carried to a fanciful extent — the 
farmer having continued to preserve peculiar races of wheat, 
rice, or pulse, as mysteriously suitable to certain fields in his 
holding. Eotation of crops even in the present day is not much 
understood, although the exhausting nature of certain crops is 
fully appreciated. What rotation does exist consists mainly in 
sowing the crop that requires the richest soil, after heavy 
manuring, and then following for several years, without the ad- 
dition of any more manure, a rotation of crops in a descending 
scale of requirements. In the list of crops so cultivated, it is a 
frequent occurrence to find two or three forms of wheat or of 
