198 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



nearly 900, 000 [square miles. Their waters are largely used for irri- 

 gation, constituting in reality the life blood of much of the country. 

 The flood discharges of these great streams are enormous. The Gan- 

 ges alone, in flood, may discharge 1,350,000 cubic feet per second. 



HEAVIEST RAINFALL IN THE WORLD. 



India's rainfall, which is accountable for this immense volume of 

 water, comes exclusively from evaporation from the Indian Ocean and 

 the bays on either side of the peninsula. The distribution of this 

 rainfall is extremely varied, ranging from a couple of inches a year, 

 cr in some sections practically nothing, to over 600 inches, which falls 

 in a limited area in Assam. At Chara Pungi, Assam, the maximum 

 rainfall of the world is reached in an average annual precipitation of 

 363 inches, while at this place in 1851, thirty inches fell in twenty-four 

 hours and 305 .inches fell during that year. These figures can be 

 appreciated when it is remembered that the annual rainfall in the 

 Atlantic States on the American seaboard is from 30 to 45 inches, and 

 that in the West farming is conducted without irrigation on as low an 

 annual rainfall as 15 or 16 inches. 



STUPENDOUS IRRIGATION WORKS. 



The irrigation works of India are the vastest in the world, water- 

 ing over 20,000,000 acres of very fertile soil. The government has 

 entire control over all .sources of water supply and so exercises it as 

 to make it the greatest benefit to the community at large. Each 

 province has a separate department iknown as the irrigation branch, 

 at the head of which is a chief engineer, while over all the chief engi- 

 neers is an inspector-general of irrigation. The Indian government 

 is greatly in favor of the extension of irrigation works. It fosters 

 the use of irrigation waters by placing the water rates very low or by 

 even giving the water away in years of scarcity. The Indian irriga- 

 tion works have generally been of the most substantial and indestruc- 

 tible character, of solid masonry and great strength. In some instances 

 canals of immense volumes of water are carried clear over other rivers. 



There are in India two classes of irrigation works, which may be 

 termed productive and protective works. In general, protective works 

 have been constructed as a protection against famine, such as now 

 stares India in the face, and they act in the amelioration of such dis- 

 asters in two ways. First, they are constructed during famine times 

 to give employment to the people and furnish them money and food 

 for their sustenance: and second, after their construction, they are 

 expected to furnish protection against future famines in those dis- 

 tricts. Most of these protective works consist of storage reservoirs, 

 but they have been constructed in regions semi-arid, and they have 

 generally proven financial failures, while the so-called "productive" 



