108 TECHNIQUE 



the mechanical line also developments of much impor- 

 tance have taken place. Well-boring operations have 

 located sub-artesian water of considerable volume in 

 definite tracts in Gujarat and Thana District, which 

 will rise to within 20 or 30 feet of the ground level. 

 In the Deccan such water is found in less quantity 

 and with much less certainty. The potential value 

 of the land in the more favoured tracts has largely 

 risen, and the demand for well-boring is far in excess 

 of the capacity of the thirty boring machines owned 

 by the Department. It can hardly be long before 

 private enterprise steps in to fill the gap. 



The lifting of water by power-driven pumping 

 plants is a matter which has a great future, since 

 there are many rivers which retain throughout the 

 year water which now remains unused through lack 

 of mechanical appliances, or which, if used, can only 

 be raised to the fields by the extraordinarily laborious 

 device of surmounting the slope by five or six vertical 

 lifts. Many pumping plants have been designed and 

 erected for land-owners by the Department, and in 

 some cases the result has been successful. Speak- 

 ing generally, this work has not obtained the success 

 that it deserved owing to the prevailing lack of 

 mechanical skill in the country parts, the absence 

 of repairing shops, and want of business aptitude 

 on the part of the ordinary cultivator, who can be 

 seldom brought to understand that, if an expen- 

 sive machine is to be made to pay its way, it must 

 be worked for all it is worth. Time will cure these 



