THE IRRIGATION AGE 45 



would be ten feet above ground with a top width of at least ten feet. 

 Below the fall the canal would be in deep digging of ten feet or more. 

 Falls of eight or ten feet are very common, necessitating deep foun- 

 dations. Whereas in America where timber is so cheap and labor so 

 expensive, the falls or drops would be designed nearer each other, 

 and deep channels and high banks be avoided as involving great ex- 

 penditure on labor. 



There are two distinct crop seasons in North India. There is 

 really no winter in the great plains; it is never cold enough for snow, 

 and but rarely does a slight frost occur in the more northerly parts. 

 The cold weather is the pleasant season of the year, when white peo- 

 ple can be out in the sun all day with safety and comfort- It is the 

 great working and touring season. The hot weather, on the other 

 hand is decidedly unpleasant to white people, who must avoid the sun 

 as much as possible throughout the day for fear of sunstroke; if their 

 duty compels them to be "exposed to its heat, their health and safety 

 require them to carefully protect their heads and backs from its rays, 

 and to keep under shade of some kind if possible. The associations 

 and ideas connected with the terms "summer" and "winter" to dwell- 

 ers in temperate climates, do not apply at all to the corresponding 

 seasons in India, which are more like those seasons in the southern 

 states Of the United States of America, where the same crops are 

 grown as in the hot weather in India. The terms "hot weather" and 

 "cold weather" are usually employed in India, rather than the terms 

 "summer" and "winter;" and the native language also employ the 

 same terms, so that their literal meanings in English come naturally 

 into use. There being then no " winter," there is no sleep of nature, 

 or stoppage of vegetable growth, but the crops, fruit and vegetables 

 of temperate climates grow readily throughout the cold weather, and 

 produce their harvest at the end of it when the sun's heat begins to be 

 powerful. During the hot weather the crops, fruit and vegetables of 

 torrid climates grow In profusion and produce their harvest at the end 

 of it, A few kinds of produce interlap between the two seasons, and 

 some take almost the whole year from sowing to harvest, as for in- 

 stance, sugar cane, which is sown in March and cut in January usual- 

 ly, and the orange which flowers in March and April, and ripens its 

 fruits in the middle or end of the cold weather, from December to 

 February: again cotton is sown from March to June, and is mature for 

 picking from October to January. The regular cold weather crops in 

 the Panjab are wheat and barley, sown from October to December, 

 and reaped in April and May; turnips, sown from August to Novem- 

 ber, as a fodder crop for cattle throughout the cold weather; field peas 

 of various kinds, one of which is the chief grain given to horses, for 

 oats are not grown by the people for their uses; and several varieties 



