and to pass on the results of his studies to his Government. The advantage to the Institute would be that its work would no longer he hampered by insufficient knowledge of Indian conditions and, on the statistical side, by unfamiliarity with the form in which Indian statistics are published and by failure to appreciate their limitations. We are, however, doubtful whether the advantage to India would be commensurate with the expenditure involved in the appointment of a direct representative on the Permanent Committee. No one representative would be in a position to deal with the vast quantity of technical information which the Institute has collected. The general interests of this country can, in our opinion, be satisfactorily looked after by the British representative on the Permanent Committee and by the deputation of representatives to meetings of the General Assembly. In these circumstances, we consider that the most satisfactory course from the point of view of this country is that which we have indicated in paragraph 559, Chapter XIX, namely, to encourage officers of the agricultural and allied departments to visit the Institute for the study of a specific subject, whilst on leave or duty in Europe. Should a representative of the Government of India be appointed in Rome for any other purpose, for example as Indian Trade Commissioner in Italy, there would, of course, be no objection to his nomination as representative of India on the Permanent Committee.

INSTITUTE.

579. The Imperial Institute in London, which was founded as the THE IMPERIAL Empire Memorial of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, has been reorganised under the Imperial Institute Act of 1925 and placed under the control of the Department of Overseas Trade. The Parliamentary Secretary to that department is the Chairman of the Board of Governors which consists of the High Commissioners of the Dominions and India, representatives of the Colonial Office and other government departments and of the Crown Agents for the Colonies, with additional members representing scientific and commercial interests.

The principal functions of the Institute are to serve as a clearing house for information relating to the production and utilisation of the raw materials of the Empire and to carry out preliminary investigations of such materials in its laboratories. The work of the Institute is organised into two departments, the Plants and Animals Products Department and the Mineral Resources Department. Each of these departments has an Advisory Council. The Advisory Council for Plant and Animal Products, of which the Indian Trade Commissioner is a member, appoints a number of technical committees to deal with special subjects. The Indian Trade Commissioner is a member of four of these, the committees on Silk, Vegetable Fibres, Oils and Oil-seeds, and Essential Oils and Resins, and India is also represented on the committee on Timber and Tanning Materials. The Plants and Animals Products Department has an intelligence section which maintains a special service for dealing with enquiries relating to the sources, production, uses and marketing of raw materials, and for collecting and disseminating general and statistical information on these subjects. This service is available without

charge to government departments. The investigations section undertakes chemical and technical examination of Empire raw materials with a view to determining their composition and value and the possibility of utilising them in industry. Its close association with the users of raw materials enables the Institute to arrange for large scale trials of promising materials.

Mention should also be made of the public galleries maintained by the Institute, and of its publications. The galleries form a permanent exhibition illustrating the natural resources and scenery of the Dominions, India and the Colonies, and the life of the people. Of the publications, the most important is the quarterly bulletin which contains records of the investigations conducted at the Institute and also special articles, notes and abstracts chiefly relating to progress in tropical agriculture, the development of mineral resources and the industrial utilisation of all classes of raw materials.

Official enquiries from India are received by the Institute at present either through the Indian Trade Commissioner or direct from officers of the agricultural and forest departments. Of the seventy-one enquiries relating to India which were received in 1926, twenty-four were from government officials in India or England and forty-seven were un-official.

We have described the organisation and work of the Imperial Institute at some length as we consider that it is in a position to render valuable services to Indian agriculture by furnishing information regarding the commercial value of its products, by undertaking, if desired, the preliminary examination of raw materials and by investigating the industrial possibilities of such materials either through the appropriate technical committee or in association with manufacturers. We also consider it desirable that the facilities it offers in these directions should be more widely known. We would, therefore, suggest that the Government of India and provincial governments should take steps to give them wider publicity. One method of doing this would be by a larger distribution of the quarterly bulletin issued by the Institute.

The Government of India contribute £1,200 annually to the funds of the Institute. This does not include any subscription for the upkeep of the Indian gallery. The subscription for this purpose was withdrawn in 1923. The galleries of the Dominions and Crown Colonies have recently been reorganised and made most informative. We are strongly of opinion that the question of reorganising the Indian gallery on similar lines and of renewing the subscription for its maintenance should be considered. An adequate representation of the principal products of India in the galleries of the Institute would serve as an advertisement of the resources of this country which could not fail to exercise a valuable, if indirect, influence on the development of agriculture and rural industries.

SMMMARY OF CON- 580. The conclusions and recommendations in CLUSIONS AND RECOM- this chapter may be summarised as follows:

MENDATIONS.

(1) Ajmer-Merwara, the Andaman Islands, Baluchistan and Coorg should have a definite agricultural organisation (paragraph 572).

(2) For district work the staff of a deputy director's circle in a major province would form a suitable unit for these provinces (paragraph 573).

(3) For research, the minor provinces should rely on Pusa and on the research staff of the neighbouring major province (paragraph 573).

(4) For assistance in agricultural and veterinary matters, the province of Delhi should continue to look to the Agricultural and Veterinary departments of the Punjab (paragraph 573).

(5) The Director of Agriculture and the Director of Veterinary Services of the neighbouring major province should be appointed advisers to the head of the minor province concerned (paragraph 573).

(6) The agricultural organisations in the minor provinces should work in the closest collaboration with the co-operative and educational authorities (paragraph 574).

(7) The Council of Agricultural Research should take a special interest in the agricultural development of the minor provinces (paragraph 574).

(8) In order that agricultural progress in the minor provinces should be on sound lines, it is essential that increased attention should be paid to the development of education and co-operation (paragraph 574).

(9) The foundations of an active policy of co-operation in agriculturai and co-operative matters between the governments in British India and Indian States have already been laid through representation on the Indian Central Cotton Committee and the Board of Agriculture. It is hoped that the manner in which co-operation can be rendered more effective will receive early and careful consideration from the Government of India and the rulers of Indian States (paragraph 575).

(10) The scheme for the establishment of a Local Self-Government Institute for the Bombay Presidency is commended to the notice of other provincial governments and of local self-governing bodies in their provinces (paragraph 576).

(11) The present is a specially opportune time to undertake an examination of the action which should be taken to promote the investigation of the problems of agricultural meteorology and to decide which departments shall be responsible for the different branches of the work (paragraph 577).

(12) Where, as in Sind, climatic questions are of importance in developing new forms of agriculture, the agricultural departments should establish meteorological stations of the "second order " on their experimental farms (paragraph 577).

(13) The continued adherence of India to the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome is most desirable (paragraph 578).

(14) No change is called for in the existing arrangements under which the British representative on the Permanent Committee of the Institute is also in charge of the interests of India, nor is the establishment of a special committee in India to work in co-operation with the Institute recommended (paragraph 578).

(15) Officers of the agricultural and allied departments in India should be encouraged to visit the Institute whilst on leave or duty in Europe (paragraph 578).

(16) Wider publicity should be given in India to the facilities offered by the Imperial Institute (paragraph 579).

(17) The question of recrganising the Indian gallery at the Imperial Institute and of renewing the subscription for its maintenance should be considered (paragraph 579).

CHAPTER XXI

CONCLUSION

581. We have been directed to examine and report on the present conditions of agriculture and rural economy in

CONCLUSION.

British India and to make recommendations for the improvement of agriculture and the promotion of the welfare and prosperity of the rural population.

The aim of the suggestions and recommendations we have made in the preceding chapters has been to bring about greater efficiency throughout the whole field of agricultural production and to render the business of farming more profitable to the cultivator. Throughout our Report, we have endeavoured to make plain our conviction that no substantial improvement in agriculture can be effected unless the cultivator has the will to achieve a better standard of living and the capacity, in terms of mental equipment and of physical health, to take advantage of the opportunities which science, wise laws and good administration may place at his disposal. Of all the factors making for prosperous agriculture, by far the most important is the outlook of the peasant himself.

This, in the main, is determined by his environment and it follows, therefore, that the success of all measures designed for the advancement of agriculture must depend upon the creation of conditions favourable to progress. If this conclusion be accepted, the improvement of village life in all directions assumes at once a new importance as the first and essential step in a comprehensive policy designed to promote the prosperity of the whole population and to enhance the national income at the source. The demand for a better life can, in our opinion, be stimulated only by a deliberate and concerted effort to improve the general conditions of the country-side, and we have no hesitation in affirming that the responsibility for initiating the steps required to effect this improvement rests with Government.

The realisation of this important truth has led, in recent years, to a large increase in expenditure on the departments concerned with rural welfare. None the less, we feel that its force is inadequately appreciated