396 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



be relieved for a few days or even weeks occasionally by a good gen- 

 eral fall of rain. In these middle and lower reaches of the canal, the 

 cultivators know they cannot depend on getting enough rain on which 

 to sow and mature a crop; therefore they readily take canal water 

 early each season before the rainy season commences, and are pre- 

 pared. to pay the full water rates for it whatever help in the way of 

 rain may follow. But in the upper reaches, those who intend grow- 

 ing ordinary grain and fodder crops during the hot weather months, 

 will wait for the rains to begin in the later half of June, or early in 

 July; and if they obtain good rain by then, they commence plough- 

 ing and sowing, knowing that if the rains continue normal until well 

 on in September, their crops will be matured and are safe, without 

 any assistance in the way of canal irrigation being required. But if 

 the rains do not commence in good time, as usual, and a drought en- 

 sues, they cannot wait very long, or the sowing season will pass 

 away; but by the middle of July must take canal water if they are to 

 .grow as good crops, and to as great an extent as they need. Again it 

 sometimes happens that good rains commence early, and the cultiva- 

 tors plough and sow rejoicing; but after a time, the rains fail and 

 a long drought ensues during July and August.- The crops begin to 

 droop and dry up; and to save them their owners are forced to have 

 recourse to canal water, for which they are glad and willing enough 

 to pay the water rates, where they are unable to give irrigation from 

 wells by life. 



In the tract of country traversed by each of these two canals, the 

 upper portion was thickly populated and largely cultivated before the 

 construction of the canal; the middle portion was moderately popu- 

 lated and cultivated, with much waste land interspersed; while the 

 lower portion was mostly uncultivated waste land with a very sparse 

 population. When the canal was completed, and irrigation com- 

 menced, the existing population could easily obtain all the water it 

 needed, and irrigation in the upper reaches was freely allowed, or 

 even encouraged, in order to dispose of the water available. But by 

 degrees cultivation increased in the middle and lower reaches, by the 

 existing population gradually increasing and extending the area it 

 could manage to plough and sow; and by the advent; of newcomers 

 who bought land, or were given grants of land by the government as 

 rewards for past good service. The government has, by this means 

 been able to pension and reward, at a small cost to itself, great num- 

 bers of soldiers and civilians, who thus have become useful and profit- 

 able members of society instead of being non-productive on money 

 pensions alone. With the demand for canal water thus largely in- 

 creased in the middle and lower reaches, the supply available in the 

 rivers for both these canals during the cold weather is very much be- 



