Mohave County miner., 1916-12-30
INDIA STRUGGLING WITH
 GREAT AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM

tinence in regard to research matter:
 and also considerably to strengthen
 their teaching side. But for some lperiod after the war there will be
 many demands upon the governments
 purse and the development of the agri-
 cultural department is only one of the
 many directions in which progress will
 be demanded.
 "We rely at present upon two main
 methods, demonstration farms and
 vernacular instruction in agriculture. ]
 am told that in American demonstra-
 tion farms very largely consist of the
 farms of individual farmers lent for
 the purpose and farmed by the farmer
 himself under the general advice and
 control of an agricultural expert. Here
 in India it is not always easy to per
 suade a farmer to modify his methods
 in accordance with the advice of of ficers of the department. We have, therefore, established demonstration farms at different centers which are controlled by the administrative staff of the department under the immedi- ate management of a farm superin- tendent.
 "In the case of some crops very con siderable improvement has resulted. Where the Indian farmer is persuaded that practical advantage results from adopting new methods, he is by no means backward. In the Punjab, where the farmer is unusually we'll off and remarkably intelligent he has readily taken to an American variety of cotton which has been proved to be suited to the climatic conditions. There is reason to hope that the country va riety of short-staple cotton will al- most disappear from the Punjab in fa- vor of this American variety. Also, more than one variety of wheat has been established, the best of which we hope soon to see grown on a very large scale in supersession of inferior arti- cles.
 'We are indebted to an American mission situated in the United pro vinces near Allahabad under Samuel Mir. Higginbotham is an enthusiastic agriculturalist and has succeeded in popularizing improved methods. We have also received con siderable assistance in suggestion from studying the proceedings of the | general education board in America.
 "One other development of recent years is cooperative credit, which was egally established in this country in . 1904. The movement has progressed )y leaps and bounds. One of the chief lifficulties in the way of agriculture in ndia consists in the small size of the holdings in many parts of the coun- ry and the consequent lack of capital. Il Moreover, custom in connection with marriage and other ceremonial occa- ions demands a heavy toll on all lasses of the community.
 "This has been largely responsible or the poverty of the agriculturalists. When a farmer had to marry his son r his daughter or to perform any of he innumerable ceremonials connected 'ith his domestic life, he invariably ad recourse to the village money ender, who demanded a high rate of interest. When a farmer desired to improve his holding by the construc- ion of well or the purchase of bull 'cks, he was compelled to resort to ne same quarter and paid a rate of lterest which amazes those not ia Iiliar with Indian conditions.
 ''The Indian statute book of the past alf century contains many examples the attempts to relieve the agricul- Irist, but none of these prior to the assage of the Cooperative Credit So- . cites act had the result so much de- red.
 'In 1909 there were 2OO8 societies
 India, and in the year 1914-15 the tai registered societies numbered ,327. Hitherto the main purpose of ese societies, which are of unlimited ability, has been the advance of oney to individual cultivators for eciic purposes, but the movement is pidly developing, and progress along les analogous to those adopted by e Agricultural Organization society
 Ireland, is already marked. There is om to hope that in the cooperative stem may prove to have been dis vered the remedy so long sought for e tendency to thriftlessness which IS caused agriculture to be so heavily in the past"