18 19. J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrS JOURNAL. 



359 



IRRIGATION OF LAND IN INDIA. 



Aijriciihtiral Jie.innrces of the Punjab; hciii(/ a memorandum on. the 

 Ajiplicutinn of the Wiixte Waters of the fiinjab to purposes of Irriga- 

 tion. By Lieut. K. Baird Smith, F.G.S. 



Watering land is of great worth at home, but still greater in the 

 hot, burning fields, or rather sandbeds of Hindostan, where there 

 are no small springs flowing, as here, in each township, nor even 

 what our fathers called the "winter bourn," the stream flowing in 

 winter only. The water comes from afar, perhaps from the snow- 

 clad Himmalehs, and runs in one great stream, from which only 

 can it be fetched to feed the wants of each neighbourhood. This 

 is the business of the engineer; and some very old works are to be 

 found in Hindostan. The writer, whose book is before us, says: — 



The river Jumna supplies two canals, denominated, respeclivtly, the 

 Eastern and Western Jumna Canals. Both were excavated, oiiginally, dur- 

 iug the period of the Mahoniedan supremacy ; tlie former in Shall Jehan's 

 reign, atjout the year 1626, the latter ahout 300 years earlier, in the time of 

 Feroze Shah, a.d. 13o0. During the administration of the Martjuis Hast- 

 ings in 1817-18, the restoration of these old canals firi.t attract-^d attention, 

 and in 1821 the Western Jumna Canal was le-opened : 9 years alterwanis 

 the Eastern Jumna Cana! was brought into active operation. This canal, 

 leaving the Jumna under the Siwalic or sub-Himahiy;in range, rejoins it near 

 Delhi, after flowing about 145 miles. Its subordinate channels, each a small 

 canal with its complement of masonry woiks, exceed at tiiis time 490 miles 

 in length, and are extending annually. Not less than 2,0C0 miles of village 

 water-courses spread their waters over the .iljoining fields. It supplies 600 

 separate villages, covering 497 square miles of area, and containing a popu- 

 lation of about 300,000 souls. From the lands under its influence. Govern- 

 ment derives a revenue of upwards of 60,00C/. per annum, which never fluc- 

 tu,ates, as the crops are secured against all ordinary vicissitudes of the sea- 

 sons. The agricultural produce thus secured is valued at nearly half a 

 million sterling per annum, ahout an eighth of which forms the government 

 land rent, the remainder being the property of tlie villnge communities. 



The discharge of this canal is about GOO culiic feet per secoml. Its cost 

 in works, up to the present lime, has amounted to nearly OO.OOOi!. ; and its 

 maintenance in repairs and estahlisbments, European and native, entads an 

 expense of nearly 7,000/. per annum. Its direct income amounts to nearly 

 15,000/. annually ; and its indirect returns, from increase of land revenue 

 derived from canal villages, are equal to about as muchMimre ; so that by an 

 investment of 90,000/. goveinment has secured a permanent revenue of not 

 less than 25,000/. per annum. This large rfivenue is obtained, under the 

 happiest circumstances, by contributing directly to the prosperity of the 

 people; who, in districts to which canal irrigation has been thus plentifully 

 extended, are in a state of material comfort far exceeding the average of 

 other parts of the country. 



The Western Jumna Canal is nearly four times as large as that on the 

 eastern bank of the river. It has a discharge of 2,270 cubic feet per second, 

 and, with its branches of large dimensions, has a course of about 430 miles 

 in length. Its annual income is ahout 30,000/., its cmrent expenditure 

 12.000/., and its cost for works has, up to the present time, amounted to 

 about 140,000/. It has enabled government to derive frr>m the tract of 

 country under its influence a land revenue of 29,000/. per annum, in excess 

 of what otherwise would have been obtained ; and in the use of its water 

 lias redeemed a large portion of the districts of Hansi and Hissar from utter 

 and hopeless sterility. 



During the troubled periods of the latter Mahomedan Emperors, the old 

 canal had become useless, and the country was consequently depopulated and 

 reduced to the condition of a desert. W'beiever the canal now extends, the 

 richest cultivation covers the lands ; the villages are prosperous and the 

 population abundant. The total area of irrigated land amounts to 1,015 

 square miles; the population to about 300,000. Tlie land revenue derived 

 from the canal districts is nearly 100,000/. per annum, and is placed beyond 

 all risk of fluctuation. The value of produce obtained from lands irrij'ated 

 by the canal is estimated at IJ millions sterling per annum, of wliiih about 

 T^gth reverts to government as land and wr.ter rent,whih- the remaiiider sup- 

 ports in great material comfort about 600 village communities. During the 

 great famine of 1837, when the crops failed everywhere else from want of 

 water, the canal districts were safe and flourishing ; and no more significant 

 illustration of the beneficial efl'ects of canals of irrigation could he found, 

 than in the contrasts exhibited between irrigated and unirrigated districts, 

 during the progress of this terrible calamity. 



These will show the great worth of such works, and our writer 

 is therefore earnest they should be carried out in the Punjab. He 

 is one of the Bengal Engineers, was Superintendent of the Eastern 

 Jumna Canal, and Assistant Field Engineer with the army of the 

 Punjab; so that as he knows the latter land well, he has had good 

 training in the management of canals, and what he says must have 

 great weight. We do not think it needful to give his plan here, 

 for that is a matter of which our readers cannot well judge, and 

 we shall therefore lay before them what he says of the Great 

 Ganges Canal, which is one of his strongest proofs in favour of his 

 own system. 



The greatest work in this department, the Grand Ganges Canal, projected 

 and superintended by Major Proby Cautley, of the Bengal Artilleiy, is now 

 in progress of execution, and will be completed in about five years. It will 

 have a discharge of 6,750 cubic feet per second, and is expected to cost 

 about 1,250 000/. Its total length, navigable throughout, is 898 miles, and 

 it will furnish irrigation to a tract of country, between the rivers Ganges anil 

 Jumna, having an area of 5,400,000 acies. Its annual income from sale of 

 water, &c., is estiinated at about 160,000/., and the increase of land revenue, 

 which "ill he derived from the country under its influence, will not be less 

 than 240,000/. per annum. 



The agiicultural produce, which will be secured from loss in those very 

 districts which were the seat of the great famine in 1837, is valued at up- 

 wards of 7i^ millions sterling per annum ; and a population of nearly 6-^ 

 millions of souls will he saved from a recurrence of those appaling scenes of 

 misery which are still fresh in public memory. Under the influence of irri- 

 gation, the produce of the soil will he increased to an amount valued at 

 1,200,006/. per annum ; and this result will be obtained at a cost to the cul- 

 tivators less by 2} millions sterling annually than if the only other method 

 of irrigation practised (that by wells) had been employed- 



The works of the Ganges Canal are of magnitude unprecedented in India, 

 The great aqueduct across the Solani river alone, will require for its con- 

 stuction nearly 90 millions of the large bricks employed in this country, 

 and a iniliion cubic feet of lime, employing nearly O.OOO men daily for fivo 

 years on the masonry and earthwork connected with it. The other works 

 are of proportionate magnitude ; and the whole, when finished, will form a 

 monument worthy of our national chiiracter, and will leave lasting proof that 

 the British government in India is not so unmindful of the great interests 

 committed to its charge, as some would desire to have it believed. The 

 works are advancing with great energy ; and, to his honour he it stated that, 

 even during the enormous financial pressure of the hte campaign, the 

 Governor-General of India, Lord Dalhou>ie, would admit of no check being 

 given to an undertaking calculated to promote so materially the best interests 

 at once of the government and the people. 



Lieut. Smith gives a short sketch of the Indian canal system, 

 which will be read with interest by professional men here. 



Indian canals of irrigation are essentially artificial rivers, having the in- 

 clination of tlieir beds tegulated by the introduction of masonry falls; to 

 which, for purposes of navigation, chambers, gates, sluices, in a word — all 

 the machinery of locks on ordinary reservoir canals, are adapted, with only 

 such modifications as the existence of a consideiahle current requires. All 

 the irrigation canal> now in existence in this country are aerived from 

 Himalayan rivers, and the drainage of this great chain, nhere it crosses their 

 beds, is controlled and regulated by dams of large dimensions, maintained 

 amid great engiueering difiiculties, and liable, during the periodic rainy 

 season, to serious damage fiom floods. \A'heii riveis at lower levels interfere 

 with the course of the canals, aqueducts carry the water over them. The 

 cross cominunicatinns of the country are maintained by numerous bridges 

 and immense numbi-rs of masonry works of all kinds: inlets, outlets, irriga- 

 tion drains, and sluices, &c., are scattered over the country thiough which 

 the lines pass. 



The water is sold to the cultivators, and distributed to the lands, either 

 directly from the main canals, by openings of fixed dimensions in their 

 banks, or indirectly hy means of subordinate channels of smaller dimensions, 

 designed to supply a limited number of villages. The latter is the favourite 

 method ; and with reason, as it has many advantages, especially in facility of 

 control and distribution over the former. 



Two systems of assessment are employed : — 1st. The measurement 

 system ; under which water-rent is levied on ground actually measured after 

 each crop, and rates ch.arged, which are discriminating, both as regards the 

 nature of tlie grain grown and the manner in which irrigation is supplied — 

 i.e., whether by natural flow over the land or hy mfaiis of irrigatiug- 

 machines. 2nd, The contract system ; under which rents are levied on the 

 area of outlet, variable in amount according to the facilities for irrigation in 

 each particular case, but fixed for periods of 20 years. Under both systems, 

 the average rate at which water is supplied amounts to about 1 rupee, or 2s, 

 per acre. There is, however, no branch of the canal system which so im- 

 peratively requires reforming as the assessment; and, should canals of irri- 

 gation be introduced into the Punjab, it is to be hoped that the principles 

 on which the water-rcut is levied, may be established on a sounder and more 

 scientific basis than now prevails. It is scarcely possible to conceive a ruder 

 or more cumbrous plan than the first-mentioned; which entails the measure- 

 luent twice a year, of every field irrigated, and which checks the extension 

 of the valuable crops hy the higher rates imposed upon them. The contract 

 system is a step in advance j but it is very imperfect, and open to many 

 grave objections as it now exists. This question is, however, loo large to be 

 discussed here, and this slight reference to it must suffice. 



The writer has brought before the government of India a most 

 important subject, and we hope it will receive early and earnest 

 attention, as a means of increasing their own income, and better- 

 ing the condition of the people. 



The description of great works elsewhere, must always have a 

 claim on the attention of engineers; and the more so in proportion 

 to their novelt)'. Although works of drainage are of great ini- 

 poitance here, we are far from thinking that irrigation is only 



