ground together, and each crop ripening in succession at its own season. Except to the eyes of a forest officer, a patch of nomadic tillage is a very picturesque sight. Men, women, and children all work together with a will, for the trees must be felled and burned, and the seed sown, before the monsoon breaks. Save on the western coast and the Gháts (where the plough is occasionally used), the implement generally employed for all purposes is the dáo or hill-knife, which performs the office alike of axe, hoe, dibbler, and sickle. In a tropical country, where the rainfall is capricious in its Irrigation. incidence and variable in its amount, the proper control of the water supply becomes one of the first cares of Government. Its expenditure on irrigation works may be regarded as an investment of the landlord's capital, by which alone the estate can be rendered profitable. Without artificial irrigation, large tracts of country would lie permanently waste, while others could only be cultivated in exceptionally favourable seasons. Irrigation is to the Indian peasant what high cultivation is to the farmer in England. It augments the produce of his fields in a proportion Its function far larger than the mere interest upon the capital expended. in India, It may also be regarded as an insurance against famine. When the monsoon fails for one or two seasons in succession, the cultivator of 'dry lands' has no hope; while abundant crops are raised from the fortunate fields commanded by irrigation works. This contrast has recently been witnessed with vividness in Southern India, where the limit between famine and plenty was marked by the boundaries of the irrigated and nonirrigated areas. But it would be an error to conclude that any outlay will absolutely guarantee the vast interior of the peninsula from famine. Much, indeed, can be done, and much is during being done, year by year, to store and distribute the scanty and irregular water supply of this inland plateau. But engineering possibilities are limited, not only by the expense, but by the unalterable laws of nature. A tableland, with only a moderate rainfall, and watered by few perennial streams, broken by many hill ranges, and marked out into no natural drainage basins, can never be entirely saved from the vicissitudes of the Indian seasons. famine. areas. Irrigation is everywhere dependent upon the two supreme Irrigation considerations of water supply and land level. The sandy desert which extends from the hills of Rájputána to the basin of the Indus, is even more absolutely closed to irrigation than the confused system of hill and valley in Central India. to 426 Sind. Farther west, in the Indus valley, irrigation becomes possible, and in no part of India has it been conducted with greater perseverance and success. The entire Province of Sind, and several of the lower Districts of the Punjab, are absolutely dependent upon the floods of the Indus. Sind has been compared to Egypt, and the Indus to the Nile; but in truth, the case of the Indian Province is the less favourable of the two. In Sind, the average rainfall is barely 10 inches in the year; the soil is a thirsty sand; worst of all, the river does not run in confined banks, but wanders at its will over a wide valley. The rising of the Nile is a beneficent phenomenon, which can be depended upon with tolerable accuracy, and which the industry of countless generations has brought under The uncon- control for the purposes of cultivation. The inundation of the trollable Indus is an uncontrollable torrent, which often does as much harm as good. Indus. Broadly speaking, no crop can be grown in Sind except under irrigation. The cultivated area of 24 million acres may be regarded as entirely dependent upon artificial water supply, although not entirely on State irrigation works. The water is drawn from the river by two classes of canals-(1) inundation channels, which only fill when the Indus is in floods; and (2) perennial channels, which carry off water by means of dams at all seasons of the year. The former are for the most part the work of ancient rulers of the country, or of the cultivators themselves; the latter have been constructed since the British conquest. In both cases, care has been taken to utilize abandoned beds of the river. Irrigation in Sind is treated as an integral department of the land administration. In 1876-77, about 900,000 acres were returned as irrigated from works for which capital and revenue accounts are kept, the chief of these being the Ghár, Eastern and Western Nárá, Sukkur (Sakhar), Phuleli and Pinyari; the total receipts were about £190,000, almost entirely credited under the head of land revenue. In the same year, about 445,000 acres were irrigated from works of which revenue accounts only are kept, yielding about £75,000 in land revenue. The total area usually irrigated in Sind was returned in 1880 at 1,800,000 acres, out of a cultivated area of 2,250,000 acres. Irrigation In the Bombay Presidency, irrigation is conducted on a in Bombay. comparatively small scale, and mainly by private enterprise. In the Konkan, along the coast, the heavy local rainfall, and the annual flooding of the numerous small creeks, permit rice to be grown without artificial aid. In Guzerat the supply is drawn from wells, and in the Deccan from tanks; but both of these are liable to fail in years of deficient rainfall. Government has now undertaken a few comprehensive schemes of irrigation in Bombay, conforming to a common type. They dam up the head of a hill valley, so as to form an immense reservoir, and then conduct the water over the field by channels, which are in some cases of considerable length. In 1876-77, the total area in Bombay (excluding Sind) irrigated from Government works was about 180,000 acres, yielding a revenue of about £42,000. In the same year, the expenditure on irrigation (inclusive of Sind) was £65,000 under the head of extraordinary, and £170,000 under the head of ordinary; total, £235,000. Ordinary irrigated area in Bombay, 450,000 acres, out of a total cultivated area of 24 million acres. in the Punjab. In some parts of the Punjab, irrigation is only one degree Irrigation less necessary than in Sind, but the sources of supply are more numerous. In the northern tract, under the Himalayas, and in the upper valleys of the Five Rivers, water can be obtained by digging wells from 10 to 30 feet below the surface. In the south, towards Sind, 'inundation channels' are usual. The upland tracts which rise between the basins of the main rivers are now in course of being supplied by the perennial canals of the Government. According to the returns for 1877-78, out of a grand total of 22,640,894 acres under cultivation, 5,000,481 were irrigated by private individuals, and 1,618,854 by public 'channels;' total area under irrigation, 6,619,535 acres, or 29 per cent. of the cultivated area. The principal Government works in the Punjab are the Western Jumna Canal, the Bárí Doáb Canal, and the Sirhind; the latter of which, with the largest expenditure, is still incomplete. I have elsewhere given an account of each of these works.1 Up to the close of 1877-78, the capital outlay had been £3,645, 189; the total income in that year was £263,053, of which £171,504 was classified as direct, and £91,549 as indirect; the total revenue charges on works in operation were £224,316, of which £146,419 was for maintenance, and £77,897 for interest, thus showing a surplus of £38,737. On the Western Jumna Canal, taken singly, the net profit was £83,112. Ordinary irrigated area in the Punjab, 5 millions of acres, out of a total cultivated area of over 21 million acres. The North-Western Provinces present, in the great doáb, or 1 See articles JUMNA CANAL, Eastern and Western, Imperial Gazetteer, vol. v. pp. 120-123; BARI DOAB CANAL, vol. i. pp. 444-446; SIRHIND CANAL, vol. viii. p. 391. in the N.-W. Irrigation high land between the Ganges and the Jumna, a continuation of the physical features to be found in the Upper Punjab. Provinces. The local rainfall, indeed, is heavier, but before the days of artificial irrigation each recurring drought resulted in a terrible famine. It is in this tract that the British Government has been perhaps most successful in averting such calamities. In Sind, irrigation is an absolute necessity; in Lower Bengal, it may be regarded almost as a luxury; but in the great river basins of Upper India, it serves the threefold object of saving the population from the vicissitudes of the season, and of introducing more valuable crops, with higher methods of agriculture. Concerning private irrigation from wells in the North-Western Provinces, no information is The great available. The great Government works are the Ganges Canal, the Eastern Jumna Canal, the Agra Canals, and the Lower Ganges Canal, the last of which is not yet complete.1 Up to the close of 1877-78, the total outlay had been £5,673,401. The gross income in that year was £438,136, of which £337,842 was derived from water rates, and £100,294 from enhanced land revenue; the working expenses amounted to £143,984, leaving £294,152 for surplus profits, or 677 per cent. on the total capital expended on works in operation. The total area irrigated was 11,461,428 acres, of which twothirds were supplied by the Ganges Canal. Of the irrigated area, 415,659 acres were under wheat and 139,375 under sugarcane. Ordinary area under irrigation in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, 11 million acres, out of a total cultivated area of 36 million acres. canals of the Doabs. Irrigation in Oudh. Irrigation in Bengal Proper. No irrigation works have yet been introduced into Oudh by Government. A tolerable local rainfall, the annual overflow of the rivers, and an abundance of low-lying swamps, combine to furnish a water supply which is ample in all ordinary years. According to the Settlement returns, out of a total cultivated area of 8,276,174 acres, 2,957,377 acres, or 36 per cent., are irrigated by private individuals; but this figure probably includes low lands watered by natural overflow. Throughout the greater part of Bengal Proper, there is no demand for artificial irrigation, but Government has undertaken to construct works in those exceptional tracts where experience has shown that occasional drought is to be feared. In the broad valleys of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, and along the deltaic seaboards, flood is a more formidable 1 A full account of each of these works will be found under article GANGES CANAL, Imperial Gazetteer, vol. iii. pp. 296-301. enemy than drought; and embankments here take the place of canals. The Public Works Department in Lower Bengal has over 2000 miles of embankments under its charge, upon which £79,105 was expended in 1877-78, either as direct outlay or in advances to landowners. The wide expanse of Northern Bengal and Behar, stretching from the Himalayas to the Ganges, is also rarely visited by drought; although, when drought does come, the excessive density of the population brings the danger of famine very near. In Sáran District alone has it been found necessary to carry out a scheme for utilizing the discharge of the river Gandak. The great irrigation works in Lower Bengal are two in number, and belong to two different types :-(1) In the delta The Orissa works. of Orissa, an extensive system of canals has been constructed on the pattern of those lower down the Coromandel coast. They store up the water by means of a weir or anicut thrown across the Mahánadi river.1 The Orissa works are intended to avert the danger of both drought and flood, and also to be useful for navigation. In average seasons, ie. in five years out of six, the local rainfall is sufficient for the rice crop, which is here the sole staple of cultivation; and therefore it is not to be expected that these canals will be directly remunerative. But, on the other hand, if they have saved the Province from a repetition of the disastrous year 1865-66, the money will not have been expended in vain. A canal, originally designed as a branch of the Orissa works, runs through Midnapur District and debouches on the Húglí. (2) In South Behar, the flood discharge of the Son has been intercepted, The Son after the system of engineering followed in the North-West, so as to irrigate a comparatively thirsty strip of land extending along the south bank of the Ganges, where distress has ere now been severely felt. In this case, also, the expenditure must be regarded rather as an insurance fund against famine than as reproductive outlay. The works are not yet complete, but the experience already gained proves that irrigation is wanted even in ordinary seasons. Up to the close of 1877-78, the capital expenditure on all the State irrigation works in Lower Bengal was £4,653,903; the gross income for the year was £49,477; the working expenses were £70,286, and the estimated interest on capital, at 4 per cent., amounted to £203,971, thus showing a net deficit of £224,780. The area irrigated was about 400,000 acres. The whole area irrigated 1 See article MAHANADI, Imperial Gazetteer, vol. vi. pp. 198-205. works. |