52 
Indian Agriculture in its Physical Aspects. 
of soil to moisture is necessarily one of great moment. It is 
true that in some parts the superfluous water has to be led off the 
land, but this is done by carrpng it in chamiels or by a system 
of embankments which prevent the rush of water over the 
surface, and the consequent washing away of the top soil ; it is 
not done by any subsoil drainage system, so familiar to us in 
this country. 
But the main problem in India is not how to remove the 
water, but how to bring it to the soil, and then how to keep it 
there. Indian soils are normally dry, English soils wet. 
The mention of this natural^ leads one to consider whether 
the native system of shallow-ploughing, or rather scratcliinrj the 
ground, is so very wrong as would-be improvers have made it 
out to be. 
The action of the native plough resembles that of a pointed 
stick running just below the surface of thi ground, some 2^ to 
3 inches deep, and stirring the soil whilst it tears out and brings 
to the surface any infesting weed. Though there may be 
instances where deep-ploughing would be effectual, I believe 
that in the great majority of cases the native system of ploughing 
is the one best adapted to the conditions, and that, were a 
furrow-turning plough used, the result would be to lose a great 
deal of the precious moisture. Again, if the soil be at all stiff, 
the slice turned up by an English plough would speedily 
become baked in the hot sun and remain a brick rathVr than 
soil. The native ploughing, on the contrary, pulverises the 
soil, and the repeated going over the land, while it costs the 
cultivator no more (for the bullocks and the labour are his own), 
enables him to get that fine tilth which is essential to him, and 
thereby he does not lose the moisture. Frequently with a 
furrow-turning plough it would happen that weeds, instead of 
being torn out as they would be by the digging action of the 
native plough, would be buried, and there are many of these in 
India which would speedily spring up again and form a dense 
matting. 
Of the soil-constituents it may be said that, while phosphoric 
acid, potash and lime are present in greater abundance in most 
Indian soils than in English ones, there is a marked deficiency 
both of vegetable matter and of nitrogen. Black cotton-soil 
has been referred to as a special feature, and it is popularly 
supposed to be of inexhaustible fertility. Other tracts there 
are which every year receive a fresh renewal of silt from rivers 
and mountain streams, and these in the Punjab constitute the 
rich wheat-growing areas which need no other manuring than 
what the silt aflords. But there are other not so desirable effects 
