( 16 ) 



protect his fields by a little bank against the inevitable introduction of the defer- 

 tilising salt, and then complaints of decreasing fertility, sickness, &c., &c. I can 

 only say what has been said by higher authority than my own " he must learn." 

 When he takes just so much water as he wants, hoards it, and doles it out as 

 he does his precious well water, saves his farm manure, or begins to employ 

 substitutes (as is already the practice in some places, by using the refuse of 

 indigo vats), we shall hear no more of the injuries from canal irrigation, but 

 its undoubted cheapness will make it a benefit not to be measured only by its 

 ralue as a protection against famine. 



53. I do not here make further reference to injuries caused by the pre- 

 sence of canals per se, interruption of drainage, &c , for these are being reme- 

 died as fast as money is forthcoming, nor to the question of taking canals 

 where ample well irrigation already exists, -a proposition, I hope, that has now 

 no supporter. I sum up the benefits to the Cawnpore district from canal irriga- 

 tion thus : (1) increased production of cane wheat and indigo (the latter enor- 

 mously); (2) cultivation of lands which would not for many j-ears have been 

 brought under the plough ; (3) substitution of a certain supply of water in some 

 places where wells must always have been precarious. But in a word I consi- 

 der the canal was never wanted generally where it has been brought in Cawn- 

 pore, except in parts ofpargana Derapur, the portion watered at the end of the 

 Etawah branch, and the new extension into Ghatampur (which, however, has to, 

 pass through a tract amply irrigated from wells). The proposed canal through 

 parganas Sikandra and Bhognipur will do unmixed good. This tract is ab- 

 solutely dry, suffers fearfully from the mere suspicion of drought, is fairly well 

 populated, and chiefly bj the industrious class of Kurmis, with, as yet, con- 

 siderable numbers of cattle : all of which points are of the greatest importance 

 in considering the question of introduction of canal irrigation or not. The effect 

 of canal irrigation on rents is more fully described in a settlement report. 



54, A considerable area in the district is also watered from tanks or, more- 

 Irrigation from other properly speaking, ponds and lakes, as the word tank implies 



sources. an artificial reservoir, of which, though there are several 



in the district (and some made at the great famine as relief works'), no use 

 is made for irrigation. Nearly every village site has its pond (tal, 1 taleya, 

 pokhar, garheya), large or small, from which the earth of which the houses are built 

 has been dug, and here and therein the district are a few large j Mis (Gogomau,. 

 Jahangirabad, &c.J whence more or less water is obtained for irrigation. It is of 

 course a great defect in this class of irrigation that it fails when most wanted, that 

 is, in drought. I believe that a more liberal system of filling ponds in such, 

 circumstances from the canal is now sanctioned, and the opportunity is one not 

 1 A deep tal is called ineghi. 



