CANAL AEEAS , 77 



unthrifty appearance. But there would be little 

 advantage gained by any measures calculated to take 

 the land out of the hands of non-cultivating landlords, 

 merely in order to subject it to the disintegrating 

 forces which now affect peasant holdings so injuri- 

 ously. When steps have been taken to check the 

 excessive subdivision and fragmentation of peasant 

 holdings, a good case might easily be made out for 

 measures to regulate the relations between landlord 

 and tenant, and to stimulate production on land which 

 now languishes under a system of dual control. 



Hitherto the ordinary dry land of the Deccan has 

 been considered, irrigated, if at all, only by the wells 

 which the cultivators have constructed or from the 

 few streams which flow for a short time after the end 

 of the monsoon. It now remains to consider the case 

 of the canal areas, which form a small part of the 

 total cultivated lands, but which have a value quite 

 out of proportion to their area, and which have a 

 potential importance to the Deccan which can hardly 

 be over-estimated. A reference to page 51 will show 

 that large irrigation works have been constructed, 

 from time to time, to supply water to the east Deccan 

 where, as is well known, the rainfall is so scanty and 

 ill-distributed that good years are the exception. In 

 this tract the soil and the climate are excellent for 

 crop production, but moisture is the limiting factor. 

 Storage reservoirs can be constructed on the western 

 Ghats where the annual rainfall amounts to 200 or 

 300 inches, and sufficient water conducted in canals 



