cent. The effect of this is that the present surplus food available, after providing for the ordinary wants of the people, and after allowing for over-estimated out-turn, would not be greater than 5,165,000 tons-the amount at which it was estimated in 1880. The existence of the export trade doubtless increases the area under crop, and intensifies cultivation in India; but, in the face of the increase of population, the smallness of the reserve of food is a serious matter.

The export trade has another effect; it raises prices in India to an extent quite out of proportion to its percentage (3 per cent.) of the total production. Railways provide a ready market for the surplus grain supply, which used to be stored, in times of plenty and low prices, as a provision against scarcity. In times of famine, therefore, the cultivator has no longer this provision to fall back on. If he could keep the proceeds of the sale of his grain as an insurance against famine, he would not be worse off than before; but his crop is usually pledged long before harvest to the money-lender; and it is the money-lender alone who derives any benefit from the improved facilities for marketing the produce. Railways have contributed to the development of non-agricultural sources of income; they have made the prosperity of the great landholders and the produce dealers; but the condition of the landless agricultural labourers, who are the great majority of the population, has materially deteriorated under the great rise of prices which the railways have brought about. As Mr Bell finally remarks:

'the present railway system has been largely instrumental, in the present famine, in preventing . . . that dreadful state of things when food is not obtainable at any price; but has it been able to prevent, and indeed may it not largely have contributed to create, that scarcely less dreadful condition, when the price is practically prohibitive to all but the wealthy?'

Among the remedial measures having for their object the improvement of the position of the cultivator, the Commission of 1878 proposed that the occupancy rights granted by the Act of 1859 should be assumed to exist, unless the contrary were proved; and that the zemindar's right of ejectment for non-payment of rent should be limited. They were of opinion that it was for the best

interests of agriculture that the multiplication of tenureholders, enjoying interests in the land subordinate to that of the landlord, but superior to that of the tenant, and living on the difference between the legal rent and what they could screw out of the tenant, should be stopped; and they therefore recommended the prohibition of subletting. Sir George Campbell declared that the English system gives the cultivators

'too much or too little right in the soil; too little, if we reduce them to tenants at will under landlords, too much if we give them absolute and transferable rights of property liable to summary sale at the suit of any creditor.'

Reform in both these directions has been undertaken-in the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885, on the one hand; and, on the other, in the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act, the Panjab Land Alienation Act (1900), and the proposed Bombay Revenue Code Amendment Bill (1901).

The most important recommendations of the Commission of 1900 deal with restraint on the alienation of land and the creation of agricultural banks. In the Bombay Deccan the indebtedness of the cultivators has reduced them to mere tenants-at-will of the money-lenders. When a transfer has been completed, the money-lender should be entered in the village-register as the owner of the land, and prevented by a suitable Tenancy Act from rack-renting his tenants. If the money-lender is a mortgagee only, the debt should be investigated and a fair sum fixed. The annual produce of the holding should then be ascertained; and, after providing for the sustenance of the cultivator and his family, the balance should be set aside to pay off the debt in a term of years. After the end of this term the holding should revert to the cultivator. For the future, restrictions should be placed on the transferability of land by requiring that any sale to a person not of the agricultural classes should have the consent of Government.

The villagers who contract loans from agricultural banks must be men of approved character, and should be jointly and severally responsible. The liability is to be unlimited; no loan is to be contracted except for agricultural purposes; and all net profits are to be paid into a reserve fund, which is to be kept undivided. These

banks are to be financed by 'organising societies' of local capitalists. In the North-West Provinces, where most of the agricultural banks that are in actual working are found, they are allowed to borrow money at 4 per cent. from the Government, but to ask for 61 per cent. interest from the rayat.

We come now to the recommendations of the Commissioners concerning administrative measures in case of famine. First in importance among them is the constitution, in the supreme and provincial governments, of revenue and agricultural departments, which should be specially charged with the control of famines under a procedure to be laid down in a special code. In ordinary times they would be charged with the collection of agricultural statistics. The Commissioners recommend that, in time of actual famine, the needy should be promptly employed on relief-works before they became enfeebled by want. The Public Works Department should keep a list of projects for such works, one, if possible, being in each subdivision, or one for every sixteen square miles. Professional engineers should superintend the execution of these works, but under the orders of the district officers, except in strictly departmental matters.

The wages of the labourers should be calculated at ordinary Public Works rates for piece-work on works under professional supervision, and on other works according to local grain-prices, so as to give each male labourer 1 lb. of common coarse grain or rice. The wages should be paid daily, or at the least possible intervals, and the tasks exacted should not be more than 75 per cent. of an ordinary able-bodied labourer's work in normal times. Gratuitous relief should be given in the form of doles of raw grain or money to children and infirm or aged persons at their homes, according to lists to be prepared by the village-officers and headmen. Aimless wanderers and beggars should be collected at poor-houses, and should receive relief in the shape of cooked grain, of which one pound would suffice, as no labour would be exacted. Strict village-inspection would be necessary to see that this form of relief be confined to deserving persons.

The Commissioners estimate that famines will recur on the average every twelve years, and that the largest

population liable to be affected by a single famine will be 30,000,000. Of these the Government might expect to have to provide for about 4,500,000, or 15 per cent., at the height of the famine, and for from 2,000,000 to 2,500,000, or from 7 to 8 per cent., on an average, monthly throughout the year. The cost of this at 27. 10s. per head per year would be 12,500,000.

In 1878 the Government of India started the Famine Insurance Fund of 1 crore of rupees (1,375,000l.). If not wanted for famine relief, this sum was to be spent on productive works and the reduction of debt. This grant was suspended in 1879 on account of the deficit caused by the Afghan war, and has subsequently not been quite kept up to its authorised amount; but the Commission of 1898 gives the expenditure from it thus:

Since 1881, agricultural departments in the Government of India and the Local Governments have been constituted. Unfortunately these departments have been so fully occupied with land revenue and records that they have had very little time left for the study and encouragement of scientific agriculture. Lord Curzon has remedied this defect by the appointment of Dr Voelcker as DirectorGeneral of Agriculture. Each province has also its own special famine code adapted to local circumstances.

The Famine Commission of 1898 introduced the classification of famine labourers as diggers and carriers, instead of the somewhat complicated system of classification formerly in force. Weakly persons are now placed in special gangs, with tasks diminished in proportion to their weakened physical capacity. The wages of the famine workers were also slightly increased, only to be reduced

*This calculation is made at present rates. The total in rupees, as given by the Commissioners (Report, c. vii, p. 326), is Rx. 25.9.91,797 (25.9.41,797 ?).

again by the Commission of 1900. The last Commission advises that famine labourers should be paid by results, with a maximum limit to their wages, but no minimum, and with separate relief for their dependants. Fining is to be abolished.

Re-afforesting and migration, as remedies for famine, are but slightly touched on in these reports. The deficiency in the rainfall is at present aggravated by the cutting down of forests incident to the expansion of the area under cultivation. The consequence is that the water is not retained so long in its natural reservoirs, and runs off the ground more quickly. A further effect of the destruction of forests is that the cattle-manure, which should go to fertilise the ground, is burnt for want of other fuel.

Coolies emigrate in large numbers from Chota Nagpur, and the Sontal Pergunnahs to the tea districts, and from the North-West Provinces to the West Indies and Mauritius. Some years ago an attempt was made to induce a large number of emigrants from the congested districts of Behar to settle in Burma; but the experiment did not meet with much success. The policy of bringing waste lands under cultivation by means of irrigation and immigration seems to offer the best chance of success in transplanting large masses of population. Nor should the attention of the Government, in dealing with famine, be confined to the improvement or facilitation of agriculture. This is, no doubt, by far the most important industry of India; but there are others, the growth of which tends to relieve the pressure on the purely agricultural districts. One great cause of the severity of famine is that the competition of European manufacturers crushes out local industries, and throws back the operators upon the land. It is, therefore, for this reason, as well as for others, incumbent upon the Government to foster, by all means in its power, the growth of forms of industry other than agriculture, provided they are suitable to the climate and population of India.

A few words about a famine camp and a famine village will make the actual working of the system clearer. A famine work, if sufficiently large, is under the superintendence of an engineer, who directs the execution of the work in technical matters. The most hard-worked official is the Famine Superintendent, who classifies the workers, allots their tasks, makes up all the returns, and sees to the