detest labor. To the Kharwas and Cheros it is particularly obnoxious, and the Hindu cultivators find it more profitable to devote all their energies to their own cultivation. The wages of laborers vary from 14 annas to 2 annas daily; and of skilled labor, such as carpenters and masons, from Rs. 6 to Rs. 10 a month.

Assam.

Prices in Assam, though exhibiting a general tendency to advance, did not vary materially during the year 1872-73. The labor difficulty remains as great as ever, except in tea cultivation, which after all is exotic. There is a remarkable absence of industrial activity throughout the province, and the natives of Assam do not as a rule care to work beyond what is necessary to existence with the amplest margin for perfect idleness. Coolies can with difficulty be procured on less than 4 annas a day; skilled labor is both scarce and costly; what there is being in the hands of persons imported from Bengal or Upper India. A very ordinary blacksmith or carpenter receives from Rs. 30 to 40 a month, and a common bricklayer Rs. 16. The average price of rice in the province seems to be about 20 seers for a rupee.

The subjoined statement shows the retail prices in selected districts during the months of the present year 1873, from April to November.

Prices in 1873.

Statement showing monthly variations in the retail prices of food in selected districts of Bengal from April to November 1873.

hended scarcity.

The year began with prices in a very normal condition, and in spite of the want of rain and the Rise of prices in consequence of appre apprehensions which were openly expressed from more than one district at an early period, prices showed no tendency to rise until late in October or early in November, when the certainty of drought and a scarcity were no longer open to question. The price of rice suddenly rose in the 24-Pergunnahs from 22 to 13 seers for a rupee, and a similar rise occurred simultaneously in all the divisions of Bengal except Chittagong and Orissa, where rain had been more opportune and the prospects of the harvest were not impaired. The price of rice throughout the month of November showed no tendency to fall, and from such districts as Backergunge,where large exports were in operation, it rose in three weeks from 25 seers to 14 for the rupee. The rates of barley, millets, and Indiancorn and gram, have all risen. In April 1873 millets were selling at Patna for 40 seers; in November they had risen to 17 seers; barley had risen from 28 seers to 17; gram from 34 seers to 17. In the Rajshahye and Bhaugulpore divisions the prices have hardly risen less remarkably. At the same time it may be said that prices have not been so high as might have been expected. In no district have they yet reached famine rates, though they are, as has been shown, very much higher than they have been at the same time in ordinary years. During November 1865, the last year of great scarcity in Bengal, prices of common food stuffs stood on the whole somewhat higher than they were standing in November 1873.

CHAPTER XIII.

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

IN Part II of last year's Administration Report, page 397, were

General observations.

explained the Lieutenant-Governor's plans for the improvement of agriculture. His object has been to obtain some scientific knowledge of Indian soils and conditions. and thence to proceed to experiment. In a country where many intelligent men are engaged in active experiment, we may proceed inductively from Appointment of scientific professors experiment to science. But in a country from England. such as India, where we have little private experiment, we must proceed by acquiring the necessary science first and then making experiments. In this view two gentlemen, very carefully selected by the Secretary of State for knowledge of the branches of chemistry and botany most used in agriculture, have been obtained and added to the Educational Department.

Experimental farms and gardens.

Some progress has been made during the year towards the establishment of experimental farms. The Lieutenant-Governor knows that there is but little reality in our farms at present, but he hopes for the future, and has persevered in getting up the form of farms in the hope that we shall put life into them afterwards.

His Honor's views.

The view we have in establishing these farms is three-fold:-(1) the introduction of scientific cultivation; (2) the teaching improved agricultural processes for economising labour; (3) the introduction of new staple products into the country. The fact remains, however, that in practical husbandry the native agriculturalists must and will beat us until we have as exact a knowledge as themselves of the soil, climate, and plants of the country. This can only be obtained by careful and protracted observation of their modes of farming by educated European farmers, who, instead of interfering too much with the natives, will be content to watch, season after season, every one of their processes, and the way in which they encounter the emergencies of Indian agriculture. Not until we have done all this, and have become thoroughly familiar with the character and resources of native husbandry, can we hope to set up a model farm amongst them that will not bring discredit upon us by failure.

The Lieutenant-Governor therefore has dropped the term "model" farms altogether. And as to the nature of our experimental farms, our first efforts should be, His Honor thinks, not to farm directly ourselves, but to select intelligent ryots to farm after their own fashion upon our land under the supervision of our agents, encouraging them to emulate each other's efforts, and giving slight assistance for the purpose of drawing out the full extent of their knowledge and aptitude as cultivators. In the course of three or four seasons a good European farmer would then have mastered the whole extent of their resources and knowledge, and would probably be prepared with well considered plans for supplementing the defective resources of the ryot, improving his processes, introducing new ones, and establishing what we might perhaps call with propriety a "model" farm.

The prime difficulty is that we can do nothing effectual until we get a proper man to advise us at the head-quarters of the Government. It is difficult to get the man, and still more difficult to get the several men required for the various localities selected in the interior. The want of men is the weak point in the scheme. For the rest the Lieutenant-Governor would put the case thus: Bengal Proper and Orissa to form one great agricultural field. We cannot afford to start in Bengal Proper more than one farm under a really scientific farmer, but we may have subsidiary farms, as have already been established in Orissa, with secondary men in charge and civil officers to supervise. On the other hand, we have two large outlying provinces of which the people, soil, mode of agriculture, productions, &c., are materially different from Bengal, viz. Behar and the Assam Province. In Behar it so happens that Mr. Levinge, the Superintending Engineer, takes a thorough practical interest in the matter, and has a European under him of some capacity. In Behar we should do well if we had only a head agriculturalist to direct and assist the management. As for Assam the Lieutenant-Governor is most anxious to start a real experiment in the Khasi Hills, and after some delay, which was unavoidable, a man has at last been sanctioned and appointed to Shillong, who will be the Government agent and farmer for all the country attached to Assam. Practically, the whole case is narrowed to getting a good head agriculturalist for Calcutta, and the question is now under consideration in this shape. Our professors are of real worth, and if we can further obtain a good practical agriculturalist to work with them, something may be achieved.

The year, as has been remarked by one Commissioner, in connection with model farms and other matters, has been one of small beginnings in great subjects of administration.

A brief account of what has been done and established is given below.

Orders have very recently been issued by Government for the preparation of the Rishera lands in Hooghly. the sub-division of Serampore near the river of that name. Six hundred beegahs were purchased here some years ago for building quarters for the East Indian Railway Company, but it was not required, and has since been farmed out on