long as it is cultivated year after year it gives a return and is ever a source of wealth. It therefore behoves us to understand its judicious use in order to derive the full measure of benefit from it. One of the countries from which we can learn an object-lesson in this respect is France. After the Franco-German War in 1870-71, France lay prostrate at the feet of Germany with the huge war indemnity to meet of £200,000,000. Twenty years later France was seeking investment in foreign countries for millions of its savings, and before the present war, no large international loan could be launched without the aid of France. All this wealth in France is the result of the system of scientific and intensive agriculture that pre vails in that country, and the yield of grain per acre to-day is about double that of fifty years ago,

Another useful lesson can be learnt from the history of Carolina rice, which fetches about three times the price of Indian rice in England. Its history, as given in Ramsay's History of South Carolina, is as follows:

Landgrave Thomas Smith, who was Governor of South Carolina in 1693, had been at Madagascar before he settled in America, and, while there, paid some attention to the cultivation of rice and observed the peculiarities of the soil and climate under which it came to perfection. Having some ground attached to his garden at East Bay Charleston, he noticed that both soil and climate were well adapted to the cultivation of rice. Just about that time a vessel from Madagascar arrived near Sullivans Island, and the master having known Mr. Smith at Madagascar went to see him. In the course of the interview the Governor expressed the wish to procure some seed rice to plant in his garden. The ship's cook had fortunately a small bag of paddy on board and this was presented to Mr. Smith, who sowed it in a small spot in Longitude Lane. From this small beginning did one of the great staple commodities take its rise and soun bocame the chief support of the colony and its great source of opulence.

The rice crop of Carolina now amounts to several lakhs of tons. Madagascar rice is of the same quality as Indian rice. It was entirely due to high cultivation that raised it to such a high quality in Carolina. Such are the potentialities of rational agriculture. Let us now look at the conditions in India.

neglected. The Indian ryot ploughs, sows and reaps much in the same way as was done by his forefathers a thousand years ago, and the implements of agriculture are the same. The soil has not only been cultivated in the rudest possible manner from time immemorial but the very first principle of agriculture has been neglected, that is, to give back to the soil what is taken from it. With every crop which we remove we take away from the soil a certain amount of inorganic substance essential to vegetable life, which formed an important part of it. It is therefore evident that without adequately restoring to the soil what is withdrawn form it, the fertility of the soil would gradually be affected and the land impoverished.

The impoverishment of the Indian soil is conclusively proved by figures which are given in the Ayeen-i-Akberi compiled by the order of the Emperor Akbar. According to these figures in the middle of the 17th century, the yield per acre of some of the principal crops were :1338 lb. per acre. 1155 lb. 223 lb.

Rice

Wheat

Cotton

...

...

800 lb. per acre. 660 lb.

"1

52 lb.

The above figures prove conclusively, first, that the Indian soil has deteriorated and, secondly, that there is something wrong with our system of agriculture.

The Indian ryot has some vague idea that he must restore to the land something in return for the crop he takes from it. He does not know what essential element he has taken away nor how to compensate adequately for the loss. The great question of how to improve the land so as

to obtain the highest permanent return with... a minimum outlay does not trouble his mind. All he does under his vague idea of making a return to the land is to burn the stubble of the previous crop, leaves and grass, and to spread the ashes of these over his fields. But the ashes of leaves and stocks will only supply the mineral food for the creation of similar parts, and as the value of a crop consists in the quantity of the grain and not. in the quantity of the straw, it is apparent that such an inadequate restoration will have no beneficial effect on the out-turn of more valuable portion of the crop.

Then we all know that a certain crop will not grow on a particular soil where another species will flourish. Any Kunbi knows this, but the why and wherefore he cannot explain. Science unravels the mystery and tells us that certain plants require particular inorganic elements for their food and that certain soils are rich in those elements while others are not. For instance, we find that a certain crop (A) needs a certain quantity of potash for its food and growth while another crop (B) needs phosphoric acid. Then we find that a certain plot is rich in potash while another is rich in phosphoric acid. It therefore stands to reason that crop (A) must be grown on the former and crop (B) on the latter plot.

Having selected a suitable crop for our land, the next step is the ploughing. The object of the ploughing is not only to pulverise the soil to help the roots of the plants but also to aerify and expose it to the sun in order to admit oxygen into the soil. Too much care cannot therefore be bestowed on ploughing. Cato was asked: Quid est agram bene colere? He replied: Bene Arare. Quid secundum? Arare. Tertio? Stercorare. These are still the fundamental principles of agriculture.

As regards manuring, the best manure is no doubt what is known as farm-yard manure, but as no country can produce enough of this, science comes to our aid by supplying artifical manures

and fertilisers of various kinds. Nature has also provided us with a variety of plants known as green manure.

In order however to derive the full measure of benefit from the manuring, it is necessary to know in what particular element your land is deficient and then to apply to the land a manure that is rich in that element. Leibig in his "Natural Laws of Husbandry" says:-"A manure will exercise its beneficial action upon a field in the most marked manner, when it establishes a more suitable relative proportion between the several mineral constituents in the soil, because upon this proportion the crops are dependent. Where a wheat soil contains just so much phosphoric acid and potash as will suffice to afford the quantity of these two substances required for a full wheat crop and no more, any additional supply cannot exercise the slightest possible influence upon the crop of corn. The wheat plant requires for its full development a certain relative portion of both nutritive substances and any increase of one beyond this proportion makes the other not a whit more effective, because the additional supply exercises by itself no action.

The British Government have now an agricultural department for helping the improvement of agriculture. The educated and well-to-do classes, and especially the sons of large landowners, should take full advantage of the efforts and researches of this department at least, if they cannot go to Europe or America for a more thorough agricultural education. The sons of Zemindars and large landowners would be incongruous as lawyers but would be in their right element as scientific agriculturists and gentlemen farmers. If France is able to double its crop out-turn in a decade, and if rice can be improved in America to such an extent as I have mentioned, is it not a pity that the immense source of wealth we have in India should be so neglected as it is?

BY

ALF a century of comparative peace under modern conditions of culture, credit, communication and transport has conferred on the world unforeseen and unprecedented material prosperity. The period has been singularly remarkable for the stupendous growth of material knowledge and its application to the arts of peace on a colossal scale. The utilisation of oil, gas, steam and electricity have annihilated time and space with the attendant astounding revolution in human activities. The standard of living has been universally raised, large amounts of capital have been sunk on the construction of railways and other industrial enterprises, new lands have been opened up, and the naval and military armaments have been increased on a gigantic scale.

to

Within this brief period, £2,000 millions of gold have been produced in world as compared with £1,000 millions since the discovery of America in 1493 down to the middle of the 19th century. In a single year, the transactions of the London clearing banks amounted to £12,730 millions; of the German clearing houses £2,218 millions; Paris clearing houses to £1,036 millions; and of the clearing houses of the five principal cities of the United States to £29,836 millions. The extraordinary increase in credibility may well serve as an unequivocal index of the immense development of profitable economic enterprises all over the world. Like all human edifices, this grand economic structure has crumbled under its own weight and brought in its train universal disaster.

It has transcended human reason, altered human instincts and ideals and culminated in a world conflict, unparalleled in the history of the

human race for the readjustment of economic advantages on the basis of physical strength and intellectual competence.

India has not been behindhand in this world struggle for material advancement. With British enterprise and with British capital to-day we have 35,000 miles of railway and 80,000 miles of telegraph as compared with 1,600 miles of railway and 11,000 miles of telegraph in 1861, thus bringing India much closer into the world's commerce. Private deposits available for commercial enterprise have increased from 26 crores in 1890 to 90 crores in 1913. The amount of cheques cleared in the Presidency Towns has increased from 138 crores in 1890 to 517 crores in 1912. The total amount of gold and silver absorbed in the country during the 12 years ending in 1911, amounted to £116,000,000 of gold and 1,600,000,000 tolas of silver against £27,000,000 of gold and 1,150,000,000 tolas of silver during the 12 years ending in 1900. The import trade of India has grown from 60 crores in 1890 to 130 crores in 1912. Agriculture has been extended and new lands have been cleared up for the cultivation of tea and rubber on a larger scale and, in short, every attempt is being made both by Government and the public to develop the economic resources of the Indian Empire. A new industrial era has dawned as is evidenced by the following list of the more important profitable concerns of recent growth :

Although the industrial outlook appears rosy, the economic condition of the people as a whole is deplorable in comparison with the condition of people in more advanced countries. Mr. Datta has pointed out that the world's production of important food grains, cotton and sugar has been steadily increasing and at a greater speed than the population as a whole. On the other hand, in India the population has increased by a larger percentage during the last two decades than either the total area under cultivation, or the total production of food grains. At the same time the external demand for Indian food grains has considerably increased. This state of affairs in an agricultural country with an impoverished soil is unsatisfactory. As the best lands have already been brought under cultivation and the cultivable waste lands are either inferior in quality or situated in unhealthy and inaccessible places, it may be reasonably assumed that there is comparatively little room for the expansion of agriculture in the country either by intensive cultivation or improved irrigation. So long as existing conditions prevail and the multiplication of populations is not restricted by legislation or otherwise, the situation is likely to become acute. As the Dewan of Mysore recently remarked: The country

is suffering from a low level of industry, a low level of education, a low standard of living and earning, a low capacity for co-operation, and low ideals of aspiration and effort generally. The only direction in which the earning capacity of the people may be increased is by industrial expansion on the lines followed by the advanced countries of the world.

THE DIRECTION OF INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.

In Europe and America, where labour is dear, the machine has replaced the man, the factory has replaced the individual, and the organised trust has replaced the factory, leading to the concentration of human life in the unhealthy atmosphere of cities with wealth for the few and poverty for the many. It is therefore considered by some thinkers that the Western factory system with its social and moral degradation ought not to be allowed to extend into India and it should give place to a happy mean between the individual working for himself and the organised trust. They assume that our increasing command over natural forces will enable us to produce with equal advantage on a small as on a large scale. As India has abundance of cheap labour which would be highly skilled if properly trained, it is contended that the Indian labour can be developed by a judicious combination of the man with the machine, thereby affording free scope to the intelligence and skill of the individual workman. Whatever may be the potential value of such an economic system, it will remain unrealised in practice except in the case of agriculture and minor industries even though the power of the sum is harnessed directly for industrial application. To give a simple instance, the consumption of fuel in a 100 H. P. engine of the non-condensing type is 10 lbs. and of the condensing type 8 lbs. per B. H. P. if the capacity of the engine is 900 H. P., the consumption of fuel is reduced in the former case to 7 lbs. and in the latter to 4 lbs. As Sir T. Morrison has observed, the modern industria!

organisation must prevail over the old from its inherent superiority. It is at present unrivalled in its capacity to provide the necessities and comforts of life and in countries where it is fully developed, the wealth per head of the population is incomparably greater than where the more archaic organisation prevails. It is therefore imperative to adopt the modern industrial organisation to ensure success even at the risk of some moral and social degradation, which is tolerable as compared with the evils arising from poverty.

ESSENTIALS FOR INDUSTRIAL ADVANCEMENT.

The vital requisites for the industrial development of a country are: capital, labour, supply of raw material, local and foreign demand for manufactured goods and, above all, enterprise. India is admittedly a poor country and the private deposits available for industrial enterprise are estimated at 100 crores of rupees. Fortunately credit has considerably developed in the country. There has been a steady growth in the capital of banks, in private deposits and cleaning house returns. Owing to the settled administration the country has enjoyed for over a century under British rule, lands have steadily increased in value to such an extent that investment on good landed or house property barely yields 6 per cent. return even in the interior. If industries are started by responsible leaders of commerce and if the public are assured of a considerably higher rate of income, lands, houses, raw materials, finished products, the goodwill and every other conceivable public asset will be available as security for credit to finance them. A fraction of the people's assets will be sufficient if properly organised and applied to carry out the most ambitious industrial programme for India.

SUPPLY OF LABOUR.

Mr. Datta has observed that both agriculturists and labourers have increased more than the other classes. Taking India as a whole, between 1901 and 1911, competition with imported articles and the products of modern factories worked by machin

ery have ruined many of the handicrafts, especially the handloom industry and compelled people to leave their ancestral vocations for other means of livelihood, particularly agriculture and unskilled labour. This accounts for the increase of agricul turists and labourers more than the other classes and an actual decrease in the number of men depending upon industrial employment. It is therefore evident that abundance of cheap and intelligent labour is available which would be highly skilled if properly trained. Agriculture, the staple industry of the country, will not suffer appreciably by drafting for industries this small section of the public, most of whom have been compelled to give up their ancestral vocation for agriculture. On the other hand it must be the endeavour of every competent person to employ them in industries connected with their vocations,

thus affording free scope to their skill and originality for their immediate benefit as well as the benefit of the country at large.

In this connection it may be well to warn the public not to be misled by irresponsible critics respecting the quality of Indian labour. A correspondent of the "Indian Textile Journal condemns every class of Indian workmen and wishes to know how with such an industrial popu lation, the industrial revival of India is to be brought about. He says: "In the building trade, the bricklayer lays 400 bricks as a good day's work with mortar points inch to an inch thick and will build walls at right angles without any proper key. He uses bricks so badly burnt that they may often be broken in the hands. His mortar is badly ground and so poor in lime that it never hardens. If told that Americans are laying 3,000 bricks in 10 hours on straight walling: he would declare it a lie and go on as before."

In reply to this gentleman and others of his way of thinking there is the following responsible statement of the consulting Architect to the Government of India in describing the progress made