IRRIGATION IN INDIA AND 

 AMERICA. 



BY. E. H. PARGITER, OF THE IRRIGATION BRANCH, PUBLIC WORKS 

 DEPARTMENT, PANJAB. INDIA. 



(Continued from last month.) 



It would be unwise to give to these small tenants in Endia, pro- 

 prietary rights in their land, as the Indian agriculturist is one of the 

 most improvident of men and many would soon run into debt, and 

 mortgage or sell their estates to capitalists or money lenders, the 

 very men whose ownership of such estates has been snown to be not 

 for the general interest. Hence while seeking to give tenants every 

 inducement to improve their holdings, and every opportunity of bene- 

 fitting themselves thereby, it was advisable to safeguard them against 

 their own extravagance or negligence; and therefore no means are 

 given them of disposing of their rights in their land, and of putting 

 themselves in the power of other landlords. Speculation in land also 

 is thus guarded against; all the profits arising from the increase in 

 the value of the land belong to the government which has in fact 

 done all the speculation itself, in constructing at great expense a new 

 canal in a barren land. 



As soon as the construction of the Chanab Canal approached com- 

 pletion, work was started on another, the Jhelam Canal, from the 

 river Jhelam, in 1898. This is to irrigate the land between the rivers 

 Chanab and Jhelam; it is expected to take five or six years in con- 

 struction. The rate of progress on the construction of these canals is 

 governed by the amount of the capital money grant allotted to the 

 province each year by the government of India. For many years 

 past, the sum given to the Panjab annually, has been between $1,- 

 300,000 and $1,400,000. During the past two years, however, since 

 Lord Curzon has been governor general of India, considerably more 

 has been allotted, he having quickly recognized the immense advan- 

 tages to the country that these canals prove, and shown thus his de- 

 sire to hasten their construction. From one third to two-thirds of 

 the annual grant in the Panjab, is usually spent each year on the 

 large perennial canal under construction at the time, and the re- 

 mainder on small canals and on extensions and improvements of ihe 

 existing large canals. 



The condition of the land in the doab to be irrigated by the Jhe- 

 lam Canal is similar to that for which the Chanab Canal was made. 

 Nearly all is waste land, but the upper half has more population than 



