Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/478

 456 TH ECONOMIC JOURNAL consume much locally grown cotton, anti the bulk of the the Deccan districts goes overland to Bombay. Those responsible for tle coming re-attiustment of spinning anti weaving mills which have been erectetl in Madras, crop of 8,88e88- ments may fairly be urged to recognize the fact that the present is a period of transition. They desire to attach an unalterable character to the valuation of the produce in cereals .of each several field upon the present registers. They will incur a grave responsibility if they alienate the increment of the magnificent estate which they administer from their successors, not the least of whose ttifculties will be the increasing cost of government. The rising generation of farmers is enlarging its practice of rota- tion; if the registered grain-value of the lamtto the exclusion of its value as a producer of other fruits of he earthais to govern its rating, the grain anti its money equivalent must be fairly esti- mated, anti the estimate must not be whittled down by excessive allowances, or by making a fair allowance several times over in the course of the calculation. During the past thirty years the South Indian farmer has obtained access to all the markets of the Empire, anti the use of all the machinery which steam tlrives. He has greatly multiplied, and has brought most of the land accessible to him into such cultivation as is possible under a ' champion' system. He has sold off the lanct vas quantities of oil-seeds, grain, anti bones, as well as other products, without returning to the land the manure due. The application of capital to agriculture under scientific direction is hindered by the excessive division of land into awkwardly situated parcels; by oint ownership of holdings by partners, some of whom lack enterprise; by joint use of fallows by fellow-commoners; by dispersal of manure over barren wastes; by liability of stock fed or starved in common to epizootics, anti the impossibility of improving by selection the breeds of stock so managed. Nothing less than a Gerterrol tclosre of unirrigatecl land can remedy these evils. The change from champion to several farming whose excellent results carried England through the century which followed Arthur Young's tour, saw a growth of efficiency of agriculture only less surprising than the contemporary industrial develop- ment. We can assign no limits to the possibilities of industry in India. The time is ripe for the dawn of an era of enclosure and im- proved farming. A_ scourging system was the natural outcome of