68 GRANT OF LOANS ANi) ADVANCES l'O AGRICULTURISTS. 



six-sevenths may be taken as having been advanced for irrigation 

 purposes. Out of the amounts advanced under the Agriculturists' 

 Loans Act, substantial sums have been given in Sincl for canal clear- 

 ance, and in all provinces for such objects as the provision of lifting 

 gear for wells and other purposes closely connected with irrigation. 

 Of the large sums given out during the famines for cattle and seed, 

 a very considerable proportion must have been required for the working 

 of wells, or the cultivation of lands under both wells and other sources 

 of irrigation, which lands, but for the aid afforded, could not have 

 been cultivated. It will be observed that considerably more than half 

 of the total advances were given in years of severe drought generally 

 speaking, the famine years 1896-97 and 1899-1901, when large 

 concessions were made, on account of the impoverished condition of 

 the cultivators, to stimulate the construction of wells in the drought- 

 stricken areas, and to provide employment on other works of agricul- 

 tural improvement, mostly of direct or indirect irrigational value, 

 for many of the labouring classes who would otherwise have come on 

 to the State relief works. The amount of the loans in the famine 

 years cannot therefore be taken as a criterion of the use which has 

 been, or can be, made of the system in ordinary years. They indicate, 

 however, what large sums can be disbursed when a keen demand has 

 been excited by urgent necessity, and when the energies of a large 

 staff of officers are concentrated upon meeting that demand. 



185. It will be instructive to analyse further the figures of ad- 

 vances for land improvement in ordinary years. The first noteworthy 

 point is that, out of the 142 lakhs advanced, Madras has given 56i and 

 Bombay nearly 36, or between them, 92 i lakhs. The Punjab comes 

 next with little more than 19 lakhs, while Bengal, the United 

 Provinces, and Central Provinces, give only 15 lakhs between them. 

 Berar and Ajmer-Merwara gave each twice as much as the Central 

 Provinces. On the other hand, out of the 119 lakhs advanced as 

 agricultural loans, no less than 78 were given in the Punjab, United 

 Provinces, and Central Provinces. 



186. Now, the diversity of conditions in the various provinces is 

 such that it would, of course, be unreasonable to expect an equally full 

 use of the takavi system in every one of them. But we are strongly of 

 opinion that this diversity does not sufficiently account for the much 

 greater freedom with which the advances are given for land improve- 

 ment in the two Southern Presidencies, and for other agricultural 



