rise within itself, and it would seem to
be more reasonable to improve such means
and appliances as the natives use and understand,
without running counter to the ideas,
and shocking the prejudices, which they
entertain, by endeavouring to compel their
adoption of European modes of culture which,
however well suited to the land of their
origin, have not the quality most necessary
to their practicability, that of being
comprehensible to the people of India. The true
end of agriculture:

                             "with artful toil
  To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil,
  To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands
  The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands,"

is best to be attained by aiding and assisting
the development of those resources of the
soil, which have already been made visible by
the people themselves.

Here it is that the duty of the
Government begins. The precariousness of the
land tenure is one of the greatest impediments
to the outlay of capital by the tenant in the
improvement of the land; and as there
is but little prospect of the removal of this
objection, the Government should fulfil
what would, were the case different, be the
obvious plans of the landholder, in
developing the resources of the soil. Irrigation and
manure are the two great points most
deserving of attention. On both points the
resources of the country are incalculable;
the advantages evident and immediate; both
require system and an outlay of capital,
which the zemindar (native landholder) is
often unable, and oftener unwilling to adopt
and incur—from want of confidence in the
administration of the law, and the law itself.
With the ryot, or cultivator, the case is very
different. The law, or the administration
thereof, affects him in a very slight degree,
compared with the zemindar. The land
tenure matters very little to him; his
rights have been secured; he profits by
the outlay of capital on the land. Risk,
he has none. His advantage is immediate.
But he does not possess the means of
improvement in any way. He may build a
well, dig a tank, or plant a grove to the
memory of a departed ancestor, and by so
doing, enhance the value of the land to the
zemindar; but he almost always ruins
himself by the act, leaving his debts to be paid
by his descendants, and the well, tank, or
grove mortgaged to the banker, for the extra
expenses incurred in its establishment! It
behoves an enlightened government to do for
the people and the country, what they are
unable to do for themselves. An inquiry,
properly set on foot, and undertaken by
competent persons on the part of the Government,
to investigate all particulars regarding
the state of agriculture, would bring to light
many facts, which, if made fitting use of,
would not only greatly redound to the honour
but adduce greatly to the advantage and
profit of the state. The information thus
acquired, and not founded on the reports of
native (government) collectors, police-officers,
and peaons (messengers), but ascertained by
the personal inspection of European officials,
and from the opinions of the zemindars and
cultivators themselves, would enable the Government
to know and devise remedies to obviate
the evils arising out of the gradual decline
of the agricultural classes in our earliest
occupied territories. It would show the
Government many places where the expenditure
of four or five thousand rupees (four
or five hundred pounds) in the repairs
or erection of a dam, for the obstruction of
some rain-filled nullah (a wide and deep
ditch), would yield a return, yearly of equal
amount, besides affording employment, and
the means of livelihood to hundreds of persons.
It would show where the opening of a
road, or the building of a bridge, involving
but a small expenditure, would give a new
life to a part of the country hitherto forgotten,
and render the inhabitants nourishing and
happy, by throwing open to them a market
for their produce—a market at present out
of their reach. It would prove incontestably
that the means of irrigation—the true
water-power of India, has been even more neglected
than the water power of that (in comparison
with the United States) sluggish colony,
Canada. The initial step once taken—the
march of improvement once fairly set on foot
—private enterprise, duly encouraged, will
follow in the wake of the Government; and
capital once invested, land in India will
become intrinsically valuable, and thus obtain
the attention it merits. Agricultural
improvement would induce lasting and increasing
prosperity of the cultivating classes (the
bulk of the population) and of the country
itself.

"What? Sham! Dinner ready?" I
exclaimed, on observing the boy approaching
the tent with a tray and a table-cloth.

"Oh, yes, sir; quite ready. And very
good dinner."

"What have you got?"

"Stewed duck, sir—curry, sir; pancake,
sir. And, by the time you eat that, one little
quail ready, sir, with toast. I give dinner fit
for a governor-general, sir; and the silver
shining like the moon, sir."

(It was in this way that he ran on whilst
laying the table.)

"But why are you preparing covers for two,
when I am dining alone?"

"Yes, sir. But only poor man's has table
laid for one. That place opposite is for
company sake. And suppose some gentleman
came—not likely here, but suppose? Then
all is ready. No running about—no calling
out, 'Bring plate, knife and fork, and spoon,
and glass,' and all that. And if two plates
laid, master, if he like—when I am standing