360 THE IRR1 GA 11 ON A GE. 



while in local hollows which receive the drainage from surrounding 

 higher lands, and so become well saturated with water, crops can be 

 grown, aided by irrigation from wells, where the depth of the spring 

 level below the ground is not too great, the water being raised in a 

 chain of earthen pots on a wheel, worked by bullock power; lifts up 

 to 50 or 60 feet are sometimes worked. 



In the Province of Bengal there are some canals, large and small, 

 constructed by the Government. In most years these do compara- 

 tively little irrigation, as the rainfall is amply sufficient for the crops 

 grown by the people; and then these canals often do not even pay 

 their working expenses, much less any interest on their capital cost. 

 But in one or two years out of ten or eleven years the rainfall is defi- 

 cient, and then the cultivators are glad to avail themselves of the 

 supply these canals afford. They therefore serve as protective works 

 against the ill consequences of years of scarcity or famine; and 

 though they do not pay as a commercial speculation when only their 

 revenues from assessed water rates are considered, yet they enable 

 the people to tide over bad years, and keep up the cultivated area, 

 land revenue, and trade, to their usual amounts. Thus the Govern- 

 ment finds it worth its while to maintain these canals every year in 

 good order for their indirect results, and to keep up the full estab- 

 lishment necessary for working them, as it is impossible to foretell in 

 what year they may not be balled on to supplement a poor rainfall. 



In the Northwest Provinces irrigation canals begin to pay com- 

 mercially by bringing in a good net revenue after paying all working 

 expenses and interest on the capital cost of construction. The river 

 Ganges is tapped by two large canals; one, the upper Ganges canal 

 takes out at Hard war, at the foot of the lower hills, where the great 

 plain is entered by the river; and the other, the lower Ganges canal, 

 takes out much lower down in the plains. These are both on the 

 right or south bank of the river, where the slope or fall of the land is 

 favorable for irrigation by flow or gravity. 



The river Jumna is tapped by two large canals, taking out of it 

 opposite each other, one on each bank. The eastern Jumna canal on 

 the left bank is in the Northwest Provinces, and the Western Jumna 

 canal, on the right bank, is in the Panjab Province. These also tako 

 out near where the river emerges from the lower hills into the great 

 plains. Another canal, the Agra canal takes out below the city of 

 Delhi. 



While these canals irrigate every year a large area, many culti- 

 vators taking canal water regularly for the more valuable crops, such 

 as sugar-cane or rice, which require water for a longer period or in 

 greater quantity than the rains supply; still a very large area of land 

 within the tract of country commanded by the canals is cultivated in 



