text: Highly active in excavating and restoring the temples and palaces , Curzon also did more than any of his predecessors , adding 9,000 km ( 5,500 miles ) of new railway lines , working to modernize farming with an agricultural research institute , and building an irrigation system that would become a model for Asia and Africa .
  
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  Curzon did more than any of his predecessors by adding 9,000 km of new railway lines and being highly active in excavating and restoring temples and palaces , but he neglected funding literature and a national library .