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ing into India; they are the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal currents. 

 These currents bring the monsoon or rains to India, normally in June. 

 After the first heavy shower ploughing begins, and millet and rice which 

 provide the food for the poorer classes are sown. These occupy the ground 

 from two to four months and the rains last for from three to four months. 

 During the period of growth the distribution of rainfall is even more 

 important than its amount; should a long break in the rains occur ac- 

 companied by hot dry winds, serious loss would be caused. After the 

 rains are over in October and November, wheat, barley, oats, pulse, etc. 

 in the north and millets in the south are sown. These are harvested in 

 March and April and give employment to millions. Such then are the 

 normal agricultural operations in India. 



A widespread failure of either harvest will cause distress, but it 

 depends on several conditions whether there will be famine or not; such 

 as the character of the previous harvest and the degree to which agri- 

 cultural operations are affected. It is not in the power of man to pre- 

 vent drought in India, nor so long as the country is mainly agricultural, 

 to prevent drought from causing famine. All he can do is to restrict 

 and mitigate the resultant sufTering. Modern famine policy is thus a 

 struggle against nature and as such it has two distinct objects in view, 

 namely protective and remedial. The one seeks to prevent famine and 

 the other seeks to relieve distress when it comes. 



I shall first deal with the protective measures and under this head 

 the most important is irrigation. Irrigation has been carried on in 

 India to some extent from remote ages and by very primitive means, 

 but it was not until British rule was established that the more important 

 irrigation works were carried out. No similar works in other countries 

 approach in magnitude the irrigation works of India and no 

 public works of greater utility have ever been undertaken in the world. 

 There are three distinct systems of irrigation in use, namely, lift, storage 

 and river works, which are illustrated by wells, tanks or reservoirs and 

 canals. In lift irrigation, the water is lifted by manual or animal labour 

 from a lower level to that which will command the area to be irrigated. 

 The Persian wheel is one of the best examples of this method. Then in 

 many parts of the country the water which falls during the rains is col- 

 lected into great reservoirs and stored there until it is required for irri- 

 gation purposes, but in this case the supply cannot be relied upon as it 

 depends upon the rains whether or not there will be sufficient rainfall to 

 fill the tanks. Some of these tanks have areas of two or three square miles 

 and may be 20 or 30 feet in depth. In the case of river works the water 

 is carried in canals to the places where it is needed, and as the grade of 

 the canal is always less than that of the river it is possible to carry the 



