July i, 1891.] rHF TSOPSOAL 
a sketch of what may ba Been, is not true by any 
means of all parts geaerally: for I may aa well 
say at the ou;s6t that there is hardly a staiemeut 
that can ba made about Indiaa agriculture, aa 
deduoed 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 ihere is no suah 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 alao is it with regard to the agriculture: 
and in this consiste.i the very ditficulty I had to 
meet— the impossibility of suggesting auy general 
improvemeat which m:ght be applicable to many 
parts aiike. Each port on of the country must be 
taken by itself, and in relation to i(s particular 
surroundings and oiroumslanoes. What those were, it 
was my duty to ascertain aa now briefly to describe. 
With the above caution I would say generally 
that the agriculture 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 ihan how 
to improve Eng idh agriculture. Mora than this, 
I have seen numerous instances of as fine and care- 
ful cultivation, combined with fertility of resource 
on the part of the raiyat, or cultivating tenant, 
as is to De met with in the best parts of our own 
oouiitry. The determining factor wiih the Indian 
cultivator is the facilities to which he has access. 
The excellence of his cultivation is bou ided not by 
the use he makes of the iaoiiities ; indeed, it is 
wonderful how ho does utilise what be has. Nor is 
it bounded by nis want of knowledge, but by the 
existence or non-existenoe of the essential requisites 
to sucosss. I, then-fora, uahesitatiiigly dispose of 
the ideas which have been erroneously entertained 
that the taiyat's cultivation is primitive and back- 
ward, and say that naarly all tb.e attempts niade 
in the past to teach him have failed, beoause he 
understands far better than his would be teachers 
the particular oitcumstanoes under which he has 
to pursue his calling. 
To take first the people, or rather the peoples. 
Agriculture is, aa 1 have said, the main occupation 
of tha country, and it is estimated tbat fully 90 psr 
cent, of the rural population is directly engaged 
in its pursuit. Of '-he 265 millions that inhabit 
India, there are about 145 million Hindus, and 
among these, generally, the best cultivators are 
found. The 45 million Mahommedans are scattered 
among the Hindus, prepondtratiag in some districts 
ana being fewer in others. They are a meat-eating 
race, as distinguished from the HinJus, who, as a 
"lie, are not. Large herds and flocks are therefore in 
the care of Mahommsdans mainly, and they are also 
the butchers ; among the Hindus, however, are several 
tribes and castes whose associations are with 
cattle, though for the most part with milking and 
breeding herds. Along the river sides the Mahom- 
medans predominate, andjthither and into the forost 
the plough and the milking cattle are driven in the 
height of the hot season. * * ♦ 
Along with the rainfall, the soil must be taken 
as determining also to a large extent the nature 
of the crops grown. Broadly speaking, India may 
be considered as diviled into three distinct geological 
series ; the first or northern portion, which is one 
vast alluvial area and comprises the great Indo- 
Gangetio plain ; the second, a central zone spreadiag 
over part of Bombay, Oentral India aad tho Central 
Provinces, the BOil being known as the black 
ootton-soil ; and, thirdly, a roAy area comprisiog 
Madras and Southern India geutr i Each division 
has its minor local distinctions ; but while of tbe 
northern it may be said that it is a rich alluvium, 
quickly drying and needing replenishment by rain 
or irrigation from well or canal, the black coltoa- 
AGRlOULTURISr 27- 
soil is very retentive and holds ample moisture 
from the annual raiafall, to enable the sowing of 
winter oro[;8 m November, so that artificial iri-'gat;on 
is h.u'dly, if at all, required, in the third or rocky z jne 
the oaly way to provide water is by storag.; taiiku 
or by ohanneis led from rivers or streams, irriga'-ion 
from wel s bsmg difficult. Thus, in the north may 
be seen regularly on the sama holding the oropa 
of both seasons, the one growin g by the aid of WdU 
or oanai irrigation, ihe otaer by mea a of the rain, 
fall and the powerful heat, in the Genti-al Provinces, 
on the contrary, are great stretches of cultivation, 
of one an 1 the same kmd, in somj diatriocs the cold 
season wheat and linseed, in others the rainy seas n 
cotton and millets; whilst ia Soutuern Inula, as 
explained, .he crops go cn much t.'ie same all 
the yeir rou id, aud s^re distiuguishsd m^iinly by 
early and lata sowings. 
Uver indivi-iual ar- as, again, there will bo enor- 
mous variations in the amount of fainlall, each having 
its correspondence in i'o orjps gijwp, and the 
method of oultivatijn putaued. Thas, crops which 
depend on heavy rainfall and a damp eljmate flourish 
only in certain parts — Aasa-n, lor itistanee, with 
its rainfall of fvotn 60 to 160 inches and more, 
produces tea luxuriantly; Behar gives the indigo 
cultivation; arid rice beloaga to Burma, Eastern 
Bengal »nd the western coasts of Bombiiy. Other 
crops, such as wh 'at, require a drier climate, though 
water may in soma cases have to be giv.m arti- 
ficially ; others agam, such as the pulse crops, gram 
{Cicer arietinum) or arhar {Gajanus indicus), can, 
when once germinated, do without dependenje on 
water, and arc suited to a hot, dry chniita. The 
iudigo plant, a r in, is favoured m the deveiopmeot 
of leai (the poi Mon Uia i for m'.kij. ,; ulv.-. v, eil-knovvn 
dye) by tUe t.j^up ..m-iie of B a^r and Beng.l; 
but the prodao ion jl ta;. , eci..' s^oi^a o.j. much Octuar 
•n the drier ciuiiaie oi the i-Ljjab and the North- 
West Provinjes; and bO it is thuij -iio two cultivations 
are carried on in quite distinut parts of tho ooani.ry; 
Nor is the influence of varying olimatd se-^n alone 
in tho crops, but it israarktd in tha catt e and even 
in tha people themselves. On the dry plaius, of 
the Punjab especially, and also in the North West 
Provinces, tha bullocks ate fine, large a^^d strong; 
but when we come to the d nioer regions of Ben- 
gal they are found to be dimuiutivo and miserable 
looking. Builalofis, howeyor, rrj jiae ia a wet or damp 
climate, and they floarisn la many parts of BeUfOl 
and along the Western Ghats, taking frequently 
the place of bullo-jks as plough cattle, fhe Bengali, 
clever as he is intellectually, is a poor epecioien 
physically, when put by tlie sida of a cJikh from 
tha Punjab, or even a North West raiyat. 
The bearing of an uncertain rainfall on the 
possibility of famine, and the determining of means 
to prevent it, are most important points. It ia 
neither in lha wettest nor, singular as it may 
appear, in the driest tracts, ttiat there ia tho 
greatest danger of famine. lu the former, as a'so 
on tho mol^tare-hok^ug black co'.£ou--oil, there is 
always certainty 0£ suflioient water ; in ohe driest 
tracts, again, the raiijat will never venture on 
growing a crop unless tie is certain of having water 
enough. But the really precariou" ciistr'- 3 are 
those in which there is just tha ehftuce of enough 
rain cooiiog to induce the cultivator to venture oa 
sowing a crop; for, should the raiu come or 
not coiatinue, there will be a tot^il failure of the 
crop, ana scarcity will result. If inis ba followed 
by a second failure, what is known as f;imiaa will 
Sit in. Happily, the Governrntnt have w^saly fore- 
seen that it is the^e precarious tracts which most 
ne^d the exteusio 1 to ihem of means of ir igation ; 
and happily, too, iho ex XtUdiyn of tae railway system 
enables the quick trauBm;ssion of stores of graiq 
