Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/198

 186 G. I. KEATINGE population on the cultivable land is usually great, and sub-division and fragmentation are marked, as shown in cases Nos. 11 to 14. In-the East Deccan the pressure is usually much less as is shown in cases Nos. 15 to 71. To sum up the evils of excessive sub-division and fragmentation, they may be stated as follows: (a) They impede current cultivation and waste (b) They prevent permanent improvements. (c) They prevent a nau frown living on his farm. (d) They prevent any orderly or capital.. organisation of labor (e) They frequently being grown. - (f) They sometime result in second crops not send land out of cultivation altogether. (g) They cause enmity amongst 'neighbhors leading to litigation-and permanent feuds. (h) They produce a generally uneconomic situation.' I quite realise that when population presses heavily. on the cultivable land, holdings must be small, and that in some cases there is a good cause for a strictly limited amount of fragmentation, as in the Konkan between the rice and th warkas lands, in parts o! Gujarat between rice, garden and dry lands, and in parts of the Deccan between the dry and patasthal lands. Bht I would submit that throtghout the Konkan and over a lrge par of the Deccan and Gujarat sub-division and fragmentation have gone much farther than is reasonable, and are exercising a very prejudicial influence on the cultivation and country. It is tn.e that in parts development of of the Deccan Gajarat this tendency is the and not yet far developed, but it