50 PBOGEESS IN WESTEKN INDIA 



cultivators are now beginning to take advantage is 

 ground-nuts. In the early years of the century the 

 area under this crop was well under 100,000 acres. 

 It is now well over 200,000 acres. 



An important matter for consideration is the extent 

 to which permanent improvements to the land, of a 

 nature obviously calculated to increase the produce, 

 are taking place. Perhaps the most important im- 

 provement of this nature that can be made is the 

 construction of an irrigation well.. By the help of 

 irrigation wells, cultivators are enabled to grow valu- 

 able crops of sugar-cane, potatoes, onions, spices 

 and vegetables, worth, per acre, ten times as much 

 as anything that could be grown without their aid, 

 or in the alternative to eke out the scanty rain- 

 fall of a precarious tract and to grow considerable 

 areas of the ordinary crops of jowari, cotton, maize, 

 etc., to a state of excellence which would otherwise 

 be impossible in most years. The number of irriga- 

 tion wells in the Bombay Presidency increased from 

 200,000 to 260,000 between the years 1896 and 1912, 

 showing a steady average increase of nearly 4000 

 wells a year. In addition to this the well-boring 

 operations of the Agricultural Department have, 

 during the twelve years since they started, added a 

 flow of several million gallons, per hour, to the water 

 supply of the existing wells. 



The operations of the Irrigation Department add 

 substantially to the agricultural wealth of the country, 

 and as the present programme for the construction of 



