1HL IRRIGATION AGE. 7 



there was on the Chanab Canal tract. This is due to the fact of its 

 being nearer to the Himalaya Mountains, and so receiving more rain; 

 of which enough falls to render culturable the lower lying portions 

 and basins which receive the drainage from the higher surrounding 

 lands. Also as the width of the doab is not great, being about forty 

 miles, the depth below ground surface of the subsoil water is not 

 more than 90 feet where deepest in the center of the doab, and de- 

 creases to about fifty feet towards the edges of the higher land bor- 

 dering the river valley bottom lands. There are a good many wells 

 therefore in use, chiefly to supply drinking water to the people and 

 their cattle and flocks; but these are also brought into use to irrigate 

 a little vegetable and grain crops when rain is deficient. The rainfall 

 is usually sufficient to produce a plentiful crop of natural grasses, on 

 which large herds of cattle and camels are supported, and their own- 

 ers derive a handsome profit from the sale of the clarified butter 

 ("Chee" in Hindustani) obtained from the milk. 



Nearly half of the land irrigable by the Jhelam Canal is included 

 within village boundaries, and belongs to the population there, though 

 most of it is waste land, has never been cultivated for centuries, and 

 is more than necessary to supply with grass the cattle kept by the 

 people. This arrangement was effected many years ago at the time 

 of the settlement of the country, soon after annexation, when there 

 was absolutely no prospect of the land ever acquiring a high value 

 through the construction of an irrigation canal. The villagers were 

 then allowed to claim as their own, all the land for which they were 

 willing to pay the merely nominal grazing land assessment, fixed by 

 government for waste lands. The people are now gaining a large un- 

 earned increment by the great rise in the value of their land caused 

 by the approaching certainty of assured irrigation. Owing to the 

 three years' drought that has caused the recent famine in India, these 

 people have been very hard hit, and brought into great straits, for 

 neither crops nor grass could be grown. Many of them were obliged 

 to sell some of their land in order to be able to pay their way, and 

 this they were encouraged to do by seeing their land to have now be- 

 coming valuable. Whereas its value was only about $1 or $2 per acre 

 before there was any hope for irrigation for it, it has already attained 

 a value of $6 or $7 per acre, though three or four years must yet elapse 

 before irrigation can be commenced. Their need has been an oppor- 

 tunity for "capitalists and speculators to buy up land, and many have 

 done so, anticipating a further rise in value when the canal is opened 

 for irrigation. Under these circumstances of there being plenty of 

 privately owned lands available for purchase, it is not likely that 

 government will sell any of its land; but guided by the experience 

 gained on the Chanab Canal, will probably keep the ownership of it 



