CHAP. II. IRRIGATION. 33 



tnral purposes in the Punjab the supply of water brought to 

 the surface in a given time, is, perhaps, greater by this than by 

 any other means. To wells, however, of the small size they 

 usually are in gardens, I do not conceive the application of the 

 Persian wheel to be any benefit. Its construction at the outset 

 is expensive ; the earthen pots soon become, many of them, 

 broken ; the woodwork is constantly getting out of order and 

 requiring repair ; while the quantity of water supplied, though 

 poured forth in a continuous stream, is far less by the hour, as I 

 have ascertained by actual measurement, than would be afforded 

 by the bag in the same time. 



II. When the water is to be raised from a river or tank, and 

 lies near the surface of the ground, as is ordinarily the case in 

 Bengal. 



1. One common plan is to throw up the water by means of a 

 light wicker shovel-like basket, or scoop, with a string fastened 

 to each of its corners. Two men, each with two of the strings, 

 one in one hand and one in the other, stand opposite each other 

 by the side of the water, lower the scoop into the water, and 

 with a jerk-kind of movement throw up the water it contains 

 into a dam made to receive it. If the dam is on the same level 

 as the ground, the water is conveyed from it to the part of the 

 garden where it is required, split bamboos being often used as a 

 channel for it; but if the dam is lower than the level of the 

 ground, two more men are employed in a similar way to throw 

 up water from this lower dam to an upper one on the same 

 level as the ground. 



This is a cheap and rude mode of proceeding, resorted to 

 when only a temporary supply of water is required. It is, 

 however, a very effective 'one, affording a large quantity in a 

 very short time. 



2. A method also frequently adopted is to drive a stout 

 stake into the edge of the bank of a tank or river. Upon the 

 top of the stake a long bamboo is made to turn seesaw-like, a 

 small part of it with a heavy stone attached moving on the 

 landward side of the stake, and the longer part, from the end of 

 which is suspended upright another bamboo, with a ghurra or 

 earthen pot attached to it, seesawing over the water. A man 

 forces the upright bamboo downward till the pot dips beneath 

 the water and is filled ; he then lets the bamboo go, and when 



D 



