PROBLEM OF IMPROVED TILLAGE. 517 To many it seems doubtful whether such experiments can Is success possible? be made to yield profitable results. The Hindu Patriot put the case in very pithy words: 'The native cultivators have nothing to learn so far as non-scientific agriculture is concerned, and the adoption of scientific agriculture is wholly beyond their means.' If the only alternative lay between a strictly scientific and an altogether unscientific husbandry, a candid observer would have to concur in the Hindu Patriot's conclusion. But the choice is not thus limited. In England one little improvement takes place in one district, another small change for the better in another. Strictly scientific The profarming trebles the produce; a field which produces 730 lbs. blem of improved of wheat without manure can be made to yield 2342 lbs. by husbandry. But the native of India has neither the capital nor the knowledge required to attain this result. If, therefore, the problem before him was to increase his crops threefold, even his best wishers might despair of his success. But the task before him is a much less ambitious one; namely, to gradually increase by perhaps 10 or 20 per cent. the produce of his fields, and not by 300 per cent. at a stroke. manure. Wheat land in the North-Western Provinces, which now Out-turn gives only 840 lbs. an acre, yielded 1140 lbs. in the time of of crops. Akbar, and would be made to produce 1800 lbs. in East Norfolk. The average return of food-grains in India shows about 700 lbs. per acre; in England, wheat averages over 1700 lbs. Mr. Hume, the late Secretary to the Government of India in its Department of Agriculture, declares, that 'with proper manuring and proper tillage, every acre, broadly speaking, of land in the country can be made to yield 30, 50, or 70 per cent. more of every kind of crop than it at present produces; and with a fully corresponding increase in the profits of cultivation.' ments: of cattle. The first impediment to better husbandry is the fewness and The three weakness of the cattle. 'Over a great portion of the Empire,' , impediwrites the late Secretary to the Agricultural Department in (1) Want India, 'the mass of the cattle are starved for six weeks every year. The hot winds roar, every green thing has disappeared, no hot-weather forage is grown; the last year's fodder has generally been consumed in keeping the well-bullocks on their legs during the irrigation of the spring crops; and all the husbandman can do is just to keep his poor brutes alive on the chopped leaves of the few trees and shrubs he has access to, the roots of grass and herbs that he digs out of the edges of fields, and the like. In good years, he just succeeds; in (2) Want of manure. Utilization of manure. bad years, the weakly ones die of starvation. But then come the rains. Within the week, as though by magic, the burning sands are carpeted with rank, luscious herbage, the cattle will eat and over-eat; and millions die of one form or other of cattle disease, springing out of this starvation followed by sudden repletion with rank, juicy, immature herbage.' Mr. Hume estimates 'the average annual loss of cattle in India by preventable disease' at 10 million beasts, worth 7 millions sterling. He complains that, up to the time when he wrote, no real attempt had been made to bring veterinary knowledge within reach of the people, or to organize a system of village plantations which would feed their cattle through the summer. The Department of Agriculture, as re-established under Lord Ripon's Government, has endeavoured to remedy these omissions, particularly in regard to the diffusion of veterinary knowledge. The statistics and breeds of agricultural stock will be given on a subsequent page. The second impediment to improved husbandry is the want of manure. If there were more stock, there would be more manure; and the absence of firewood compels the people to use up even the droppings of their cattle for fuel. Under such circumstances, agriculture ceases to be the manufacture of food, and becomes a mere spoliation of the soil. Forage crops, such as lucerne, guinea-grass, and the great stemmed millets, might furnish a large supply of cattle food per acre. Government is considering whether their cultivation could not be promoted by reducing the irrigation rates on green fodder crops. A system of village plantations would not only supply firewood, but would yield leaves and an undergrowth of fodder sufficient to tide the cattle over their six weeks' struggle for life each summer. In some Districts, Government has land of its own which it could thus plant; in others, it is only a sleeping partner in the soil. In Switzerland, the occupiers of allmends, or communal lands, are, at least in some cantons, compelled by law to keep up a certain number of trees. It seems a fair question whether plantations ought not in many parts of India to be made an incident of the land tenure. They would go far to solve the two fundamental difficulties of Indian agriculture-the loss of cattle, and the want of manure. The system of State Forestry at present pursued will be described in a subsequent section. Meanwhile, the natives set an increasing value on manure. The great cities are being converted from centres of disease into sources of food-supply. For a time, caste prejudices WANT OF MANURE AND WATER. 519 Five years ago,' stood in the way of utilizing the night-soil. of water. The third impediment to improved agriculture in India is (3) Want the want of water. Sir J. Caird believes that if only one-third of the cultivated area were irrigated, India would be secure against famine. An extension of irrigation would alone suffice to raise the food-supply annually by more than 1 per cent. in most years; and thus more than keep pace with the general increase of the population. Since India passed to the Crown, great progress has been made in this direction. Money has been invested by millions of pounds; 200 millions of acres are now under cultivation; and in the five British Provinces which require it most, 28 per cent. of the cultivated area, or say onethird, was in 1883 artificially supplied with water. Those Provinces are the Punjab, the North-West, Oudh, Sind, and Madras. Looking to what has of late years been done, and to what yet remains to be done by wells and petty works with the aid of loans from the State, we may still reckon on a vast increase of food from irrigation. The pecuniary and statistical aspects of irrigation will be dealt with hereafter. Having thus summarized the three impediments to improved husbandry, it may be profitable to examine in detail the three subjects immediately connected with them, namely, the Agricultural Stock of India, Forests, and Irrigation. tural Throughout the whole of India, excepting in Sind and the Agriculwestern Districts of the Punjab, horned cattle are the only stock. beasts used for ploughing. The well-known humped breed of cattle predominates everywhere, being divided into many varieties. Owing partly to unfavourable conditions of climate and soil, partly to the insufficiency of grazing ground, and partly to the want of selection in breeding, the general condition of the cattle is miserably poor. As cultivation advances, Want of fodder. Famous breeds. the area of waste land available for grazing steadily diminishes, and the prospects of the poor beasts are becoming worse rather than better. Their only hope lies in the introduction of fodder crops as a regular stage in the agricultural course. There are, however, some fine breeds which are carefully fostered. In Mysore, the amrit mahál, a breed said to have been formed by Haidar Alí for military purposes, is kept up by the local authorities. In the Madras Districts of Nellore and Karnúl, the indigenous breed has been greatly improved under the stimulus of cattle shows and prizes, founded by British officials. In the Central Provinces there is a high-class breed of trotting bullocks, in great demand for wheeled carriages. The large and handsome oxen of Gujarát (Guzerát) in Bombay, and of Hariáná in the Punjab, are excellently adapted for drawing heavy loads in a sandy soil. The statistics of live stock for various Provinces of India will be given in the form of a table on p. 523. The worst cattle are to be found always in deltaic tracts, Buffaloes. but here their place is to a large extent taken by buffaloes. Camels. Horses. Govern ment studs. These last are more hardy than ordinary cattle, their character being maintained by crossing the cows with wild bulls, and their milk yields the best ghi, or clarified butter. In British Burma, the returns show that the total number of buffaloes is nearly equal to that of cows and bullocks. Along the valley of the Indus, and in the sandy desert which stretches into Rájputána, camels supersede cattle for all agricultural operations. In the Punjab, the total number of camels was 125,584 in 1883. The breed of horses has generally deteriorated since the demand for the native strains, for military purposes, declined upon the establishment of British supremacy. In Bengal proper, and in Madras, it may be broadly said that native breeds do not exist. The chief breeds in Bombay are those of the Deccan and of Káthiáwár, in both of which Provinces Government maintains establishments of stallions. The Punjab, however, is the chief source of remounts for our Native cavalry; the total number of horses in that Province in 1883 being returned at 76,238, in addition to 33,773 ponies. About the beginning of the present century, a stud department was organized by Government to breed horses for the use of the Bengal army. This system was abolished as extravagant and inefficient by Lord Mayo in 1871. Remounts are now obtained in the open market; but the Government still maintains a number of stallions, including horses imported from England, LIVE-STOCK STATISTICS. 521 or half English bred, and high-class Arabs. Excellent horses are bred by the Baluchí tribes along the western frontier. fairs. Horse fairs are held yearly in the various Provinces of Horse India. The principal ones in the Punjab, the part of India which furnishes the main supply of the Native cavalry remounts, are at Rawalpindi, Dera Ghází Khán, Jhang, Dera Ismail Khán, and Muzaffargarh. The number of horses exhibited varies greatly from year to year; but about 5000 may be expected for sale at these five fairs. Prizes to the amount of about £1500 are awarded. The average price of remounts for the Native cavalry has risen of late years from 17 to about £22. Horse shows are also held at Shahpur, Gujrát, Rohtak, and Jalálábád, which are ordinarily well attended and successful. In recent years, much attention has been paid in the Punjab to the breeding of mules for military Mules. purposes; and the value of these animals has been conspicuously proved in the course of the operations in Afghánistán. In 1882-83, the Government maintained 152 donkey stallions, of which 34 were imported from Europe, 74 from Arabia, and the remainder were of various native breeds. Some of the mules bred reach the height of 15 hands. The best ponies Ponies. come from Burma, Manipur (the original home of the game of polo), and Bhután. The catching of wild elephants is now either a Government Elephants. monopoly, or is conducted under strict Government supervision. The chief source of supply is the north-east frontier, especially the range of hills running between the valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Bárak. During the year 1877-78, about Numbers 260 elephants were captured in the Province of Assam, yield- caught, 1878 and ing £3600 to Government. Of these, 170 were captured by 1883. lessees of the privilege, and 90 by the Government khedá department. In 1882-83, the number of elephants caught was 475, yielding a Government revenue of £8573. Elephants are also captured to a smaller extent in the mountains bordering Orissa; in Mysore and Coorg, among the Western Ghats; and in Burma, for the timber trade. They are used by Government for transport, and are eagerly bought up by native chiefs and landowners as objects of display. The wild elephant will be treated of in the subsequent chapter on Indian zoology. Sheep and goats are commonly reared in the wilder parts Sheep and of the country for the sake of their wool. Both their weight goats. for the butcher and their yield of wool are exceedingly low. In Mysore, and at the Saidapet farm, near Madras, attempts have been made to improve the breed of sheep by |