[ 10 ] 



14. In Bengal the total capital outlay on canals up to the 

 close of 189697 had reached a total of Rs. 7, 61,23, 817. The 

 total length of canals in operation was 916 miles, including 

 738 miles used for irrigation, the rest being used for naviga- 

 tion only. There were also 2,605 m iles of canal distribu- 

 taries. These were capable of irrigating 1,572,005 acres. 

 The receipts for 1896-97 amounts to Rs. 25,63,047 and the 

 working expenses to Rs. 19,37,142, the net revenue being 

 Rs. 6, 25, 905 against Rs. 2,45,646 and Rs. 1,38,135 in the two 

 preceding years. The areas actually irrigated from these 

 canals in 1896-97 and the two previous years were respec- 

 tively 805,387 acres, 579,933 acres, and 509,811 acres. The 

 average outturn of paddy per acre from canal irrigated areas 

 may be put down at 24 maunds representing 16 maunds of 

 rice. The outturn of grain from the 805,387 acres served by 

 canal water may be put down at 12,000,000 maunds. The 

 annual consumption of grain per individual adult being put 

 down at 6 maunds, the number of adult units directly saved 

 from starvation by canal irrigation in Bengal during the 

 recent famine may be calculated at two millions. 



15. The figures for the N.-W. P., the Punjab, Sind, Bom- 

 bay and Madras are equally or still more satisfactory. In the 

 Punjab the whole of the capital outlay of 841 lakhs of rupees 

 has been more than recovered, the net revenue up to the end 

 of 1896-97, amounting to 866 lakhs of rupees, or taking the 

 interest charge of 556 lakhs of rupees into account, the State 

 has already recovered 310 lakhs out of the 841 lakhs spent in 

 irrigation works in the Punjab. In 1896-97, the gross 

 revenue exceeded 109 lakhs, while the working expenses were 

 below 31 lakhs, leaving a net profit of about 78^ lakhs to the 

 state, which is equivalent to 9.34 per cent, on the capital in- 

 vested. The area irrigated in the Punjab in that famine year 

 was 4,621,000 acres, viz., one fifth of the total cultivated area 

 of the province. Of this 1,441,000 acres were under wheat 



(which alone must have saved between three and four million 



