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great depths with fairly cheap appliances, the outlay they will 

 incur on account of the estate they may happen to manage, 

 may protect a certain precarious tract for all time to come 

 from drought and failure of crops. 



1 1. And the educating influence of such innovations, even 

 on the Indian raiyat, who is proverbially conservative, though 

 slow, will be lasting. For the raiyat, though conservative is 

 only obliged to be so on account of his poverty. He cannot 

 -afford to lose money by launching out on mere speculations. 

 But, if the benefits of some practicable methods are demons- 

 trated, persistently demonstrated before his eyes, even he 

 will be induced to change his old ways. Have not the cultivators 

 taken to growing potatoes and tobacco, and using the Behia 

 mill for crushing sugarcane, and the microscope for selecting 

 silkworm grain ? You have to treat the raiyat with a little 

 patience and you must have confidence in your own methods. 



12. But the question of famine in India is mainly a ques- 

 tion of irrigation, and, to manage irrigation properly, one 

 must have a fairly solid knowledge of Engineering and of 

 Agricultural Sciences, and looked at in this light the addition of 

 an agricultural course to the Engineering, is a very judicious 

 scheme. It has been observed that the productive power of 

 soil diminishes after a number of years where canal water 

 is used too freely for the purpose of irrigation, and that loca- 

 lities too freely irrigated with canal water become malarious. 

 The question of well-irrigation is being seriously discussed 

 as probably fraught with greater advantage, and along with 

 this must be considered suitable implements for lifting water 

 from various depths. 



13. On the whole, however, there cannot be the slightest 

 doubt that canals have proved the best protection against 

 famine. I will quote a few figures from the reports of the 

 Famine Year 1896-97, to prove that the construction of canals 

 should be undertaken, wherever possible, by way of relief 

 work, at any rate, in famine times, 



B 



