364 Report S.A,A. Advancement of Science. 



Their advantages will be still greater, as these works will be con- 

 structed only on the large rivers which have the most assured supply, 

 and are the largest irrigation asset of the country ; these rivers cannot, 

 however, be properly utilised, except by schemes of considerable mag- 

 nitude. Moreover, these rivers traverse the parts of the country with 

 the most suitable physical conditions, not only for irrigation, but for 

 the all-important matter of easy communications. The larger an 

 irrigation work, the more likely is it to be a financial success, for 

 the concentration of irrigation will enable cultivation to be carried on 

 in the cheapest manner by means of the most modern agricultural 

 implements, and the water supply to be utilised most economically. 

 The construction of such a work will enable central depots to be 

 established for crop, dairy and meat produce, such as manufactories, 

 creameries and cold storages. The farmers under it can thus com- 

 bine, and, without the help and cost of middlemen, can capture and 

 retain the home market, now so largely supplied from oversea. The 

 exporting countries are, moreover, so geographically remote, that 

 competition with them should not be difficult if it is arranged for by 

 proper scientific methods, of which those very countries have shown 

 the value. The magnitude of the irrigation operations will not only 

 justify, but will demand, the construction of good roads and branch 

 railways that will furnish the means of cheap transport, the lack of 

 which at present is the principal factor permitting oversea competition 

 to be successful. 



As an example of the value of a first-class work, the Chenab 

 Canal * in the Punjab, the largest recent project in Inilia, may be 

 quoted. This canal is taken out (Vide General Plan) on the left 

 bank of the Chenab, the second principal tributary of the Indus, and 

 irrigates the area between the Chenab and the Ravi, which previously 

 was a very sparsely inhabited and desert tract of Crown land. It 

 was originally completed in 1887 as an inundation canal, i.e., one 

 without a weir, and entirely dependent for the amount of its supply 

 upon the fluctuating level of the river. Such n canal did not take 

 full advantage of the amount of water available, and, accordingly, 

 the construction of a weir, with regulating works, was sanctioned in 

 1888, and the remodelling of the canal itself, in 1892. At its head 

 it is 250 feet wide and 10.8 feet deep, and it carries 10.800 cubic 

 feet per second ; in other words, its discharge is as large as that of 

 the Thames at Twickenham in flood. The weir was completed early 

 in 1892, and since then the expansion of irrigation has been extremely 

 rapid, as the following table will show : — 



Acres irrigated. 



1892-93 ■•• 157.197 



1897-98 ... ... ... 810,000 



1902-03 - ... ... ... 1,829,169 



Eventually, it is anticipated that it will irrigate 2,500,000 acres. 

 Its capital cost up to 1902-03 was about ^1,830,000, and the net 



* Recent developments in Punjab Irrigation, by Sidney Preston, CLE. — 

 "Journal of the Society of Arts," Vol. L., No. 2,586, May 30th, 1902. 



