ments in India were reorganized and strengthened. Each province
has now a staff of experts. Much valuable work has been under-
taken, though the difficulty of improving the methods employed by
the mass of the cultivators is great. The departments have been
successful in introducing improved seed and distributing it over
large areas. Strains of wheat bred at the Central Research Institute
at Pusa are said to yield an increased profit of i an acre. Long-
stapled varieties of cotton have been introduced into Madras and
the canal colonies of the Punjab. The improvement of jute, sugar
cane, indigo and rubber has also been taken in hand. In recent
years the growth of the cooperative movement has been notable.
In 1909 the number of cooperative societies was under 2,000 with
180,000 members, with an aggregate share capital of 91,000 and
loans and deposits of 380,000. In 1918 there were 24,395 societies
with a membership of over one million, a share capital of 1,403,000,
loans and deposits of 6,500,000 and a reserve of 727,000. The
number of societies has since increased to over 32,000. The district
societies are grouped round central societies, of which there are
over seven hundred. These collect loanable capital and finance the
affiliated societies. Nine-tenths of the societies are agricultural.
The public confidence in the movement is increasing, as the propor-
tion of loans and deposits from non-members has nearly doubled in
four years and represents more than 30% of the total capital. In
Madras the movement is extending rapidly among the depressed
classes. In the Punjab figures available for 140 societies which have
been in existence for ten years show that 28 % of the members are
now entirely free from debt, that over 100,000 of debt has been
paid off, and that on the average 10 years of cooperation reduces
the debts of a member by half. In all provinces cooperation is
reported to diminish extravagance and litigation. Some societies
have by-laws prohibiting certain specified forms of ceremonial ex-
travagance. In Burma the principle of cooperation has taken firm
hold of the people and the movement there is carried on by an almost
entirely indigenous direction. In many parts of India the societies
are working in close conjunction with the agricultural department.
There are societies for the purchase of concentrated manures and
agricultural implements; others for the sale of cotton The coopera-
tive movement in India is still in its infancy; it has had its ups and
downs, its failures and mistakes; it affects but an infinitesimal frac-
tion of the population. But it seems to have the elements of vitality,
and to be the most hopeful road to freeing the petty cultivator and
landholder from indebtedness and to improving his crops.
Irrigation. Up to the end of 1918-9 the total outlay on the great irrigation canals that are classified as productive works and charged to capital account was 38,000,000. In that year the total receipts from these works, including land revenue due to irrigation, amounted to about 4,900,000 and the total expenses, including interest, to 2,600,000, leaving a net return of 2,300,000 or 6% on the capital invested. There are also certain protective works of considerable magnitude, constructed for the protection of precarious tracts, the cost of which, amounting to about 7,000,000, has been charged not to capital but to the general revenues, as they are not directly remunerative. And there are also " minor " works, which in the aggregate have a substantial protective value. The three descrip- tions of canals irrigated some 25,000,000 ac. in 1918-9, and the area continues to increase rapidly with the development of irrigation on the recently constructed canals in the Punjab. It is in the western region of that province, where vast tracts of fertile land have for centuries lain waste from want of rainfall and where the great rivers which have given to the province its name are fed in the driest months by the melting snows of the Himalayas, that the greatest advances have been made and the most striking results achieved. The first of these desert canals, the Lower Chenab canal, is easily the most productive work in India. It irrigates 2,500,000 ac. and returns over 40 % on the original outlay. The Lower Jhelum canal is of the same character, though the area it commands is less. It irrigates 800,000 ac. and gives a return of 20 per cent. The triple-canal scheme, the last link of which the Upper Jhelum canal was completed in 1915, is in magnitude, daring conception, and engineer- ing difficulties the greatest irrigation work in India. As its name im- plies it consists of a series of canals. The first canal conveys the surplus water of the Jhelum river, a river which receives from the Wular Lake in Kashmir an unfailing supply of water in excess of local requirements, to the Chenab river. Another canal utilizes the upper waters of the Chenab, thus reinforced from the Jhelum, to irrigate a large tract between that river and the Ravi, and dis- charges itself into the latter river, which in its turn is enabled to feed a third irrigation canal. The combined system will eventually irrigate 1,750,000 ac. and return a net revenue of over 7% on a capital outlay of 6,000,000. Three other projects of the first magnitude are under consideration in the Punjab, and one of equal size and difficulty thf Sukkur barrage scheme in Sind. Including these, schemes are under consideration or projected in the different provinces which are estimated to cost 40,000,000, irrigate 10,000,000 ac. and yield a return of about 7 per cent. The bearing of this development of canal irrigation in mitigating the effect of drought and increasing the food supply of India is obvious. It provides a surplus production for export in normal years and a reserve of food for the country in years of deficient harvests ; and it gives an outlet for the population of older and more fully settled districts.
MANUFACTURES
The conditions of employment in Indian factories are regulated by the Indian Factory Act of 1912, which marked a decided advance upon the former law, although very inadequate if judged by modern ideas of factory legislation. It established a 12-hour day for men, a lo-hour day for women, and a 6-hour day for children in textile factories; prohibited night-work, and limited the use of mechanical or electrical power in the factory to 12 hours during any one day. India was represented at the International Labour Conference held at Washington in 1919, and the Indian Government is taking steps to bring its factory law into greater conformity with the principles approved by the conference. It is proposed to raise the minimum age-limit for child labour from 9 years to 12 years and the upper age-limit from 14 to 15 years; to establish a 6o-hour week for all classes of factories; to give longer intervals of rest and make more stringent provision for the weekly holiday.
In the years immediately preceding the war the cotton mills, mostly in the Bombay Presidency, passed through a long period of depression, though the number of spindles and looms increased. Jute mills, which are concentrated at Calcutta and are mostly in English hands, enjoyed almost unbroken prosperity at the expense of Dundee. The Tata Iron and Steel Works and the Bengal Iron and Steel Co. managed to hold their own against strong competition from overseas. The provision of electrical energy for the numerous industries of Bombay city was taken in hand by another Tata company, with a capital of more than a million sterling raised en- tirely in India.
The war gave a notable stimulus to Indian industries and aroused great public interest in the industrial development of the country. The scarcity and dearness of foreign goods threw the country on its own resources, enabling existing industries to make abnormal profits and encouraging the growth of new industries. The production of cotton piece goods doubled and the export in 1917-8 was 86% over the pre-war average. The number of looms increased from 69,700 in 1908 to 106,000 in 1918. The value of manufactured jute exports was 35,000,000 in 1917-8 against 13,500,000 in the pre-war quin- quennium. The Tata Iron and Steel Works and the Bengal Iron and Steel Co. produced 781,000 tons of steel and iron in 1918-9 against 305,000 tons in 1913-4, and their equipment has been greatly enlarged. The demand for tanned hides has led to an increase in the number of leather lactories from 29 in 1908 to 322 in 1918. The number of rice mills increased in the same period from 202 employing 21,000 persons to 544 employing 46,000 persons. The production of woollen mills trebled and the capital invested increased sevenfold. These are some instances of the impetus which the circumstances of the war gave to Indian manufactures. It was reinforced by the establishment in 1917 of a munitions board for supplying stores to armies in the field and developing industries in India. The profits made during the war had encouraged the promotion of many new industrial ventures, some of them possibly not very well conceived. During 1919-20, 906 companies were floated with an aggregate capi- tal of 183,000,000. Another indication of the rapid growth of capi- tal in India and of the profits made from industries and agriculture during the war is to be found in the success which has attended the large issues of Government loans. As an outcome of the munitions board the Government of India at the close of the war appointed an industrial commission to take stock of the industrial state of the country and to consider in what ways the Government might best assist its development. As the result of an exhaustive survey the commission were impressed with the backwardness of India, its ill- equipment as regards fundamental industries, and the poor provision made for technical and scientific training. Their recommendations cover much ground, from the active participation of the State in industrial development, the establishment of an All-India scientific service with full laboratory equipment and investigating staffs, the grant of State aid to private enterprises, to improving the general conditions of labour in India and increasing its efficiency. To give effect to the policy recommended by the commission a Minister of Industries has now been added to the executive council of the Gover- nor-General. Another important step has been taken in the amalga- mation of the three Presidency banks into an Imperial Bank of India under conditions that will make for greatly increased bank- ing facilities in the interior of the country.
COMMERCE
During the ten years preceding the war the sea-borne trade of India greatly increased. For the five years ending 1908-9 imports of private merchandise averaged 75,000,000 a year and exports 108,000,000; the corresponding figures for the five years ending 1913-4 were imports 97,000,000 and exports 146,000,000. These figures exclude treasure. The balance which they show in favour of India averaged 49,000,000 a year in the latter quinquennium, or 52,000,000 including reexports of foreign merchandise. Net im- ports of treasure during 1909-14 averaged over 25,000,000 a year, of which nearly 19,000,000 was in sovereigns or gold bullion. The figures reflect a series of good harvests, an active demand on other countries for Indian produce, and rising world prices. Of the gold imported, a portion found its way into the paper currency reserve, a portion no doubt was hoarded or used for jewellery, and a con- siderable portion passed into circulation. In some districts sovereigns
