UPPER INDIA. 69 



The opinion here given of a man who has been engaged for 

 many years in the indigo line does not agree with that of 

 people who talk of the successful growth of indigo in the 

 Upper Dooab. 



One of the arguments brought forward in favour of irriga- 

 tion is, that there is an increasing demand for water where 

 canals have been established : this is brought forward by 

 irrigationists as evidence that the native cultivators are 

 beginning to appreciate irrigation. This increased demand 

 for water is caused by the increased impermeability of the 

 soil to water, and by its being more quickly evaporated 

 from the surface, where it is more speedily brought by 

 capillary attraction. The greater amount of water supplied 

 to the land the more it will require. 



With greater power of capillarity the natural soluble salts 

 of the soil are more quickly brought in solution to the sur- 

 face, where they remain when the water is lost by evapora- 

 tion ; and some salts are brought to the land in the water 

 used for irrigation. 



We never see reh on the higher lands, which are generally 

 of a lighter and more sandy description, and being so, are 

 more porous; it is always on land subjected to irrigation, 

 either artificial or natural, or with a hard soil that we find reh.* 

 The naturally irrigated lands are those lower lands on which 

 water is deposited by surface- drainage from the higher lands. 

 It appears here, also, as if two causes were at work. The 

 salts of the higher lands may be brought down in a state of 

 solution or suspension, and deposited, and the natural salts of 

 the lower lands may rise in the soil in solution by capillary 

 attraction. There are many well-known cases of inland seas 

 and lakes the Dead Sea, the Caspian, and the Aral, the 

 waters of which are more impregnated with saline matters 

 * The OOSUT lands are of the latter description. 



