framed by some local governments and have been adopted by municipal councils and district boards. It would, however, appear that they are usually ineffective in practice because the public does not know of their existence and there is no proper system of inspection.

The Government of India appointed a Committee to investigate this subject in 1913. The Committee made a number of recommendations, the most important of which was that the maund of 82 2/7 pounds should be declared the standard weight for India, though not for Burma. No action was taken by the Government of India on its report and matters remain much as they were prior to the appointment of the Committee. We are strongly of opinion that the time has come for a re-examination ⚫ of the position. We fully realise the obstacles to all-India legislation presented by the force of local trade custom and of local tradition which is probably more powerful in this than in almost any other respect. The only hope of advance appears to us to lie in action within the limits of each province. At the same time, it is desirable that no province should undertake legislation which might embarrass an adjacent province or, at some subsequent stage, render all-India legislation impracticable. We would, therefore, recommend that the Government of India should again undertake an investigation of the subject and should lay down general principles to which provincial governments should adhere, so far as this is possible without undue interference with local trade custom. Both the Berar and the Bombay market legislation provide for the regulation of the kind and description of scales, weights and measures in use in cotton markets and for their periodical inspection, verification and correction. If a uniform system of weights and measures is prescribed for adoption not only in all the regulated markets established in each province but in all factories, gins and presses, its adoption in all transactions should follow within a very short period of time. A beginning has already been made in this direction so far as ginning and pressing factories are concerned. Under the provisions of the Cotton Ginning and Pressing Factories Act, local governments may make rules prescribing the weights and scales to be used in these factories and for their inspection and such rules have been made in a number of provinces.

Burma, where the system of weights and measures is entirely different from that in use in any other part of the Indian Empire, would require separate treatment. We are glad to note that steps in the direction we recommend above have already been taken in that province and that a Bill providing standards of weights and measures for use in Burma has been introduced in the local Legislative Council. The Bill provides, inter alia, that the standard measure of capacity for unhusked rice in any district outside the Arakan division shall be the basket (tin) which is defined as a cylindrical measure of capacity fifteen inches in height containing 2,477 cubic inches or nine gallons. For unhusked rice in the Arakan division and for agricultural produce other than unhusked rice in any part of Burma, the standard measures of capacity will be such as the local Government may prescribe by notification. The Bill further provides that the standard weights and measures only shall be used in any district on and after a date to be notified by the local Government and also for

REPUTATION

OF

INDIAN AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTS IN THE
WORLD'S MARKETS.

powers of inspection and control. A striking feature is the power which is taken to recover from the villagers the cost of equipping village committees with standard weights and measures, by the imposition of a tax or a cess on lands assessed to land revenue. It is explained that the reason for this provision is that the total expenditure involved in a free supply at the cost of Government would be considerable; and that the share of each village, if the cost is distributed over all villages, will be very small and its collection will do more than anything else to advertise the fact that standard weights and measures have been provided. 340. We have so far dealt with marketing as it affects the individual producer. We have shown that his position in relation to the distributors and ultimate consumers of his produce would be greatly strengthened by an improvement in the conditions in which it is marketed. But, though the establishment of properly regulated markets would mark a distinct advance towards the solution of the problem of securing for the cultivator the best possible price for his produce generally, and, in particular, the full premium for any superiority in the quality of that produce, it is not in itself sufficient to solve that problem in its entirety. In the term "quality" we include not only the intrinsic superiority of the product resulting from the cultivation of improved varieties but also the condition in which it is marketed. The tendency all the world over is for local buyers to pay a flat rate for good and poor quality alike. Adequate recognition for quality is everywhere difficult to secure. The position has been aptly summed up by an authority on English marketing conditions in the statement that produce of high grade quality subsidises low grade supplies and that, for many commodities, there is little or no incentive to raise the quality level of the produced article. This statement, though made with special reference to marketing conditions in England, is equally true of India. The incentive to grow the improved varieties introduced by the agricultural departments is pro tanto diminished if the cultivator fails to obtain the full premium justified by their superiority over those ordinarily grown. Again, he has little incentive to market his produce in the best possible condition unless that condition is recognised in the price he gets for it.

Before passing on to consider the steps which can be taken to assist the cultivator in obtaining the full premium for quality, it will be convenient to discuss the reputation enjoyed by Indian agricultural produce in the world's markets. That much of it is marketed in an unsatisfactory condition was clear from the evidence we received, though it would appear that matters in this respect have considerably improved since the Board of Agriculture discussed the action which could profitably be taken by Government to discourage the adulteration and mixing of agricultural produce at its meeting in 1917. Much valuable light was thrown on the subject by the evidence we took in England.

Cotton, which, in point of value, stands easily first in the list of Indian exports of raw produce, is the commodity in regard (i) COTTON. to which complaints of quality are most common