i5o 



AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL 



accommodations to enable the tenant to carry out 

 improvements. It is therefore by the tenant and the 

 Government that the bulk of the agricultural capital is 

 supplied. 



The capital which the tenant, financed by the village 

 money-lender, contributes to the development of his 

 industry consists, in the first place, of a pair of plough- 

 oxen, worth from Rs. 30 to Rs. 80 ; a plough and 

 other rude agricultural implements, worth perhaps 

 another Rs. 5. His circulating capital is represented 

 by seed, a little manure, and the food of his plough- 

 oxen. But, in addition to this small and indispensable 

 expenditure, there is another and very important form 

 of capital, with regard to which the tenant's contribu- 

 tion has been, in the aggregate, considerable. The 

 most important means of securing and increasing the 

 product of agriculture in India is irrigation, and almost 

 all the private capital sunk in permanent improve- 

 ments comes under this head. Out of a total of 

 11,000,000 acres under irrigation in an ordinary year 

 in the United Provinces, 8,500,000 acres are irrigated 

 by works constructed by private individuals. Of this 

 amount, 5,750,000 acres are irrigated from wells, 

 2,000,000 acres from tanks, and the balance of 750,000 

 acres from other miscellaneous works. 



The area irrigated from wells varies very greatly with 

 the nature of the season. In a wet year like 1894-95 

 it may fall to 3,000,000 acres ; in a year of drought 

 it rises to over 7,000,000 acres. The leading facts 

 regarding well irrigation in these provinces are given 

 in the following table : 



