VALUE OF IRRIGATION 283 



During the great drought of 1896 the Meerut and 

 Agra divisions, in the picturesque language of Sir 

 A. P. MacDonnell, 'sat secure in their network of 

 canals'; and not only did the cultivators escape 

 calamity, but they made enormous profits out of the 

 misfortunes of their neighbours ; it was a common 

 saying at the time that, owing to the exceptionally 

 good prices realized, many men who were involved 

 beyond hope extricated themselves from debt in a 

 single season. 



But the scope of canal irrigation is limited. In 

 certain areas the introduction of canals would lead 

 to a rise in the level of the subsoil water, and would 

 result in the water-logging of the soil.* In some 

 districts it is mechanically impossible to bring water 

 to the places where it is wanted. In other places 

 water may be brought by canals, but only at a cost 

 which would lay a permanent burden upon the 

 general body of taxpayers. Tanks are a useful source 

 of artificial irrigation in years of normal rainfall, but 

 they are usually dried up or reduced to very small 

 dimension in the years of drought, when they are 

 most needed. Wells are a source of supply which 

 has proved of the greatest value in the past. ' There 

 can be little doubt that in 1896-97 it was the wells, 

 and the wells alone, which saved the greater part 

 of the Ganges -Gogra Doab from a famine which 

 would have rivalled in intensity that of Bundelkhand. 

 They made possible the sowing of the rabi, and the 

 replacing over a large area of the failed khan/by rabi 

 crops. Largely owing to the prompt and timely 

 action taken by the Local Government in granting 

 liberal advances under the Loans Act, over 550,000 

 temporary wells were made in that year, the con- 

 struction of some thousands of masonry wells was 



* For this reason the Taluqdars of Oudh are strongly opposed to 

 the construction of an irrigation canal (the Sardah Canal) in that 

 province. 



