The empire of India . upted sheet of fertiUty. But where the village areasare larger, the crops fall off very markedly from centreto circumference. The fertilising effects of leguminouscrops are recognised and they are cultivated, not merelyin rotation with cereals, but in association with manuring is practised in some localities. But avery large proportion of the land is never manured, andhas worn down to a condition of impoverished stability,from which, however, it will now and again make asurprising start if the seasonal conditions are exceptionallyfavourable to bacterial action
The empire of India . upted sheet of fertiUty. But where the village areasare larger, the crops fall off very markedly from centreto circumference. The fertilising effects of leguminouscrops are recognised and they are cultivated, not merelyin rotation with cereals, but in association with manuring is practised in some localities. But avery large proportion of the land is never manured, andhas worn down to a condition of impoverished stability,from which, however, it will now and again make asurprising start if the seasonal conditions are exceptionallyfavourable to bacterial action in the soil. Scope for Expansion There is an idea that much waste land remains to meetthe necessities of a growing population. Generally thisis incorrect. Statistics exhibit large areas of unreclaimedwaste. But, except in the remoter tracts of Assam andBurma, or in the case of expanses of desert—mostly inthe Punjab—which may be rendered irrigable by thedevelopment of the State canal system, comparatively little 62. IMPLEMENTS of this waste is agriculturally an asset, and over the greaterpart of India the land can feed a larger populationonly by the better cultivation of the fields which exist. Implements The implements of agriculture are ingenious but ofvery rough construction and depend for their efficiencyupon the assiduity with which they are used. In a countryof small holdings,—where, moreover, a field labourercan be hired for two or three pence a day,—money willhardly be spent upon labour-saving appliances, and duringthe three generations of British rule the agriculturalmethods of the country have remained practicallyunaffected by European example or influence. Thecultivator ploughs his field with a wooden grubber,^fixed by a long pole to the yoke of the bullocks. He har-rows his land with a log of wood, cuts the crop with alittle ineffective sickle, threshes it by the treading of hisbullocks, and winnows it by pouring the grain and chaffout before the wind. The pl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidempireofindi, bookyear1913
