MANUAL OF AGRICULTURE FOR INDIA. BY LIEUTENANT FREDERICK POGSON HONORARY MEMBER AGRI-HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF INDIA, CALCUTTA: BOMBAY: THACKER & CO., LIMITED. MADRAS: HIGGINBOTHAM & CO. LONDON: W. THACKER & CO. 1883. HARVARD COLLECE LIDRARY SEP Bussey Institution All rights of translation are vested in the author. PREFACE. IT has been officially announced that the population of India is steadily increasing, whilst the productive powers of the long-neglected and over-worked soil are as steadily decreasing. acre. The writer has long anticipated such a result. The very purity of the water of the canals, used for irrigation, has gradually dissolved fertilizing substances which, held in aqueous solution, have descended into the subsoil beyond the reach of the roots of growing crops, and these have biennially carried off a sensible quantity of fertilizers, producing more or less exhaustion of the soil, as indicated by the reduced yield of grain of all kinds per The most notable instance of this soil exhaustion has just been announced in public prints, and it is but the beginning of the end, if matters agricultural are neglected. In the Delhi Gazette of the 30th January, 1883, we are told that "The opium crop has almost entirely failed throughout a great portion of the Chupra and Tirhoot district." This failure means a loss of at least one million sterling of State income, which would not have taken place had the Opium Department, when pro viding wells for the poppy cultivators, placed it in their power to make and use the "POPPY MANURE" mentioned in this work, the formula having been published in January, 1870, and being within the reach of all concerned. The flooding of fertile lands with canal water has in numerous districts brought saline matters from the subsoil to the surface, producing sterilization. To meet this evil all kinds of empirical experiments have been tried, all terminating in the completest of failures. The true and only remedy, however, has never been tried, and unless the powers of the Excise Department are curtailed, may remain untried. The remedy is simple and practical, and is as follows, viz., All lands sterilized by Kuller should, after being ploughed, be sown with the seed of the Lana (Salsola soda) of the Punjab. The land so sown should not be irrigated, and the seed should be sown before the rains commence. The crop will remove á considerable quantity of salt and sulphate and carbonate of soda from the soil. The cultivation to be carried on annually (all irrigation being prohibited), until the land refuses to grow any more Lana, owing to exhaustion of the Kuller. The reclaimed land should now be sown with turnips, which will remove much sulphuric acid, and next autumn the soil will have been sufficiently sweetened to grow a crop of wheat. To guard against failure the land should be limed with Kunkur dust previous to being sown with wheat, and the system of over-irrigation should be most carefully guarded against. The system of reclamation indicated may be carried out by the zemindars if supplied with Lana seed, and the Excise Department should allow them to use the green leaves as cattle fodder. The writer has foreseen that which is now coming to pass as regards the population. The summary suppression of female infanticide has borne fruit; and unless the increase of population is met with an increased supply of food from the same extent of land, which under a bad system of husbandry sufficed for a smaller population, the new danger to be encountered cannot be successfully met and disposed of. The zemindars and ryots throughout the length and breadth of the land are now about to be called upon "to make two blades of grass grow where one only grew before," and, to enable them to do so, practical instruction in agriculture is essentially necessary. The present Manual places ample instructive information at the disposal of all who can read and understand English, irrespective of rank, position, caste, creed, or colour. But the zemindars and ryots of India, who can neither read nor write their mother tongue, and are too old to learn, may be counted by the million; and for the benefit of these classes and their offspring, the rising generation, an abstract Hindee translation of this Manual will in due course be published if the project meets with the support of the Indian Government-to be followed by a translation therefrom in Urdu and Punjabee. DEHRA DOON, February 3, 1883. J. FRED. POGSON. |