82 HOLDINGS 



acre and make large profits, a fairly large class of 

 ordinary good cultivators who grow crops of about 

 30 tons of cane to the acre by a lavish use of manure 

 and water, and a large class of cultivators who 

 through lack of skill, care or capital grow consider- 

 ably less. 



The present situation of the canal areas may be 

 roughly described as follows : The land is seldom 

 levelled or laid off for irrigation in the manner 

 essential to effective production and the economical 

 use of water. The fields are greatly subdivided into 

 sizes and shapes which make proper irrigation almost 

 impossible (vide p. 219). As each section of the canal 

 is opened every ten days, for the issue of water, 

 there is a scramble for the water on the part of a 

 large number of cultivators. It is lavishly used 

 and freely wasted, to the detriment of the current 

 crops, and often to the permanent damage of the soil. 

 Some cultivators get their lands overflooded, while 

 others get less water than they need. The prescribed 

 rotation for the issue of water gets thrown out by the 

 unpunctuality of many of the irrigators, and crops 

 then suffer from the long intervals between the 

 waterings. In these circumstances it will be realised 

 that the canal areas are not nearly so productive as 

 they should be, and from this fact arises another set 

 of adverse conditions. The charges for water that 

 can be made are based upon what the worst class of 

 cultivators can afford to pay under circumstances of 



