44 
Indian Agriculture in its Physical Aspects. 
means of all parts generally : for I may as well say at the outset 
that there is hardly a statement that can be made about Indian 
agriculture, as deduced from any one district, which cannot be met 
by a precisely opposite statement taken from the experience of 
another. It has been well said that there is no such thing 
as one country India, or one Indian people. It is a continent 
fifteen times the extent of the whole British Isles, and made up of 
many countries and many peoples, all totally diverse. So 
also is it with regard to the agriculture : and in this consisted 
the very difficulty I had to meet — the impossibility of suggesting 
any general improvement which might be applicable to many 
parts alike. Each portion of the country must be taken by itself, 
and in relation to its particular surroundings and circumstances. 
What those were, it was my duty to ascertain and now briefly to 
describe. 
With the above caution I would say generally that the agri- 
culture of India is, in my opinion, excellent; and how to improve 
it is a problem which is, I do not hesitate to say, a harder one 
than how to improve English agriculture. More than this, I 
have seen numerous instances of as fine and careful cultivation, 
combined with fertility of resource on the part of the 7-aiyat, or 
cultivating tenant, as is to be met with in the best parts of our 
own country. The determining factor with the Indian culti- 
vator is the facilities to which he has access. The excellence of 
his cultivation is bounded not by the use he makes of the faci- 
lities ; indeed, it is wonderful how he does utilise what he has. 
Nor is it bounded by his want of knowledge, but by the existence 
or non-existence of the essential requisites to success. I, there- 
fore, unhesitatingly dispose of the ideas which have been erro- 
neously entertained that the raiyat's cultivation is primitive and 
backward, and say that nearly all the attempts made in the 
past to teach him have failed, because he understands far better 
than his would-be teachers the particular circumstances under 
which he has to pursue his calling. 
To take first the people, or rather the peoples. Agriculture 
13, as I have said, the main occupation of the country, and it 
is estimated that fullj?^ 90 per cent, of the rural population 
is directly engaged in its pursuit. Of the 2Gb millions that 
inhabit India, there are about li5 million Hindus, and 
among these, generally, the best cultivators are found. The 
45 million Mahommedans are scattered among the Hindus, 
preponderating in some districts and being fewer in others. They 
are a meat-eating race, as distinguished from the Hindus, who, 
as a rule, are not. Large herds and flocks are therefore in the 
care of MahoiTimedaris mainly, and they are also the butcherg ; 
