UPPER INDIA. 103 



square miles, or 32,000,000 acres, is to be irrigated at the above 

 cost, then the cost of irrigational works is, in the first case, 

 12s. 6d. per acre; but as irrigation produces "reh "on the 

 surface of the land, it is suggested an expenditure of 2 per 

 acre be incurred to get rid of the reh. A certain sum having 

 been spent in endeavours to improve the land, which 

 endeavours, instead of improving, have caused deterioration, 

 it is proposed to expend more than three times the original 

 sum in endeavours to mitigate the injurious effects of the 

 first injudicious expenditure. Leaving aside the question of 

 expense, where could the fuel be found to burn the tiles ? 

 Supposing subsoil-drainage were carried out, and the reh were 

 carried away by the drains, would this be beneficial or hurtful to 

 the country? It is generally admitted that reh rises by capillary 

 attraction from the subsoil in a state of solution. Such being 

 the case and I believe it is not disputed, the lands now 

 covered with reh, and sterile from its effects, must have held 

 the reh (except such as may have been brought in the water 

 used for irrigation) in the subsoil at the time they were fertile 

 and bearing good crops, viz. the first few years after they 

 were irrigated ; thus showing that land containing the salts 

 composing " reh " in the subsoil, are not sterile but fertile. 

 Getting rid of the reh by the drains might be the means of 

 securing good crops for a few years; but as the salts composing 

 reh are in moderate quantities absolutely necessary for vegeta- 

 tion, we might be securing a temporary benefit at the cost of 

 a permanent loss to the country. We might benefit the 

 present generation by ruining posterity. 



Many people look on lands once covered with reh as irre- 

 claimably barren. I do not take such a pessimist view of the 

 case ; I look on reh as a safeguard thrown up by nature to 

 protect herself from further spoliation, and as a warning to 

 man not to violate her laws ; and I believe that by judicious 



