358 



NA TURE 



[August i i, 1904 



cleanliness in the form of live potential dirt that is un- 

 pleasant to contemplate, and is not without its dangers. 

 The results of the examination revealed a state of affairs 

 which calls for remedial action. 



The usual exhibition of sanitary apparatus and appliances 

 was held in association with the congress, and a new feature, 

 which certainly met with an encouraging amount of success, 

 was the delivery, each evening, of free popular lectures upon 

 different items of general hygiene. 



INDIAN IRRIGATION AND ITS RELATION 



TO FAMINES. 

 TN the summer of iqoi the Governor-( General of India in 

 Council decided on the formation of a special com- 

 mission to report on the irrigation of India as a protection 

 against famine.' 



The commissioners appointed were Sir T. Higham, 

 M.I.C.E., Inspector-General of Irrigation; the Hon. Denzil 

 C. J. Ibbetson, Chief Commissioner of the Central 

 Provinces; the Hon. J. W. P. Muir Mackenzie, Secretary 

 to the Government of Bombay ; Diwan Bahadur Mudaliar, 

 member of the Legislative Council of Madras ; with Sir 

 Colin Scott Moncrieff as president, and Mr. W. B. Gordon, 

 M.I.C.E., as secretary. Their first meeting was held at 

 Lahore on October 29, igoi. Two years were spent in 

 inspecting all the principal irrigation works, and their 

 report was presented to Parliament a short time ago in 

 the form of a Blue-book. 



About the same time the Department of the Interior 

 United States Geological Survey sent Mr. Herbert 

 M. Wilson, one of their staff, to India to investigate the 

 method of irrigation as carried out there, and to obtain 

 such information as might be of use to the department 

 charged with the irrigation works in the western States 

 and the reclamation service of the American Geological 

 Survey. 



His report, entitled "Irrigation in India, "^ was pub- 

 lished in 1903. Largely as the result of the renewed 

 activity in irrigation in America, the first edition of the 

 report was soon exhausted, and a second edition revised up 

 to date has been issued. 



India stands preeininent in the gigantic engineering 

 undertakings carried out for irrigation purposes. No other 

 country has so vast and so fertile an expanse of territory 

 with such convenient slopes for the construction of canals, 

 and at the same time such an abundant though varied 

 water supply. 



The main factors determining the use and value of 

 irrigation are the rainfall, the character of the soil, and 

 the class of crop best suited to the special conditions pre- 

 vailing. 



In India the zone of heaviest rainfall lies along the 

 western coast of the main peninsula, where the monsoon 

 striking the western Ghats precipitates on their outer slopes 

 an average annual rainfall of 100 to 250 inches. On the 

 outer ranges of the Himalayas the annual rainfall amounts 

 to 461 inches. Over the greater part of India, however, 

 Ihe rainfall is below 40 inches. In the extreme south of 

 ihe peninsula it is scanty and precarious, and in some of 

 the States of the north-west the average annual fall is as 

 low as 5 inches. Where the annual rainfall is below from 

 10 to 12 inches cultivation is practically impossible with- 

 out irrigation. Where it is abundant and exceeds 70 inches 

 Ihe chance of the failure of the crops may be regarded as 

 so remote as to make irrigation unnecessary. Between 

 these two extremes lies a vast tract of nearly a million 

 square miles of which, in the absence of irrigation, no 

 part can be deemed absolutely secure against the uncertain- 

 lies of the season and the scourge of famine. 



On the irrigated lands two crops can be taken in the 

 year, one of which is sown in the early spring and gathered 

 in the autumn, and the other sown in the autumn and 

 gathered in the spring. The summer crop depends little on 

 irrigation for its maturing, as this is growing during the 

 monsoon or rainy season. The autumn crop consists of 



1 Report of the Indian Irrigation Commission, 190,-3, Part i. General. 

 (H^yre and Spottiswoode). Price 1^. 40'. 



- "Irrigation in India." By Herbeit M. Wilson. (VVashinclnn- 



Government Printing Office.) '' 



NO. 181 5, VOL. 70] 



millet, pulses and rice, and the spring crop of wheat, 

 barley, linseed and grain. The crops mainly dependent or» 

 irrigation to ensure a full return are wheat, barley, 

 sugar cane, garden crops, and cotton where it grows on 

 the black soil. The area under wheat covers more than- 

 16 million acres, and that on which cotton is grown 

 8^ million acres. Rice is an extensively cultivated crop, 

 but is principally limited to the delta lands of the Orissa, 

 Godaveri and Bengal ; 80 per cent, of the crops raised in 

 such regions are rice. Millet and oil seeds also are im- 

 portant crops. All kinds of vegetables and fruit are pro^ 

 duced, these being the chief food of the natives. Jute is 

 very extensively grown, the largest imports to this country 

 coming from India. Indigo is also largely grown by the 

 natives, and poppies for the production of opium. Tobacco 

 and coffee are only grown in small quantities. Tea is 

 extensively grown in Assam, where it is indigenous, and 

 also in Darjeeling. 



Irrigation has been practised in India from time 

 immemorial. Many of the large tanks or storage reservoirs- 

 date back to the eighth and ninth centuries. The Grand 

 Anient in Madras is supposed to have been made in the 

 second century. A canal on the banks of the Jumna inade 

 by the former rulers was restored in 1814, and the ex- 

 perience gained in this work led to the construction of the 

 great Ganges Canal, a work which in magnitude and bold- 

 ness has not been surpassed by any irrigation work. 



The total length of the Government irrigation canals, 

 including branches, is 36,000 miles, and they can discharge 

 more than 100,000 cubic feet of water a second, and irrigate 

 annually ig million acres. There are also 7000 miles of 

 minor protection works and storage reservoirs with a 

 capacity of 25,000 million cubic feet. 



The total area in India irrigated is estimated at 44 

 million acres, of which 42 per cent, is supplied with water 

 from State works, 15^ millions being from canals, and 

 3 millions from reservoirs. Of the private works, covering: 

 25^ million acres, 2-S per cent, is from canals, 11. 8 from 

 tanks, 29 2 from wells, and 14 from other sources. 



The capital outlay on the thirty-nine canals and major 

 works up to the end of 1901 was more than 36^ millions of 

 pounds (counting a lakh of rupees as equal to 10,000/.). 

 The annual revenue after paying all working expenses was 

 7-1 per cent. The works in the Punjab yield a net revenue 

 of 10^ per cent. ; those in Bombay and Bengal do not earn 

 enough revenue to cover interest charges on capital outlay. 



The value of the crops irrigated in a single year is about 

 equal to the whole capital cost of the works, and in time 

 of famine the produce of the irrigated area being largely 

 available for transport to distressed districts becomes an 

 important item in the genera] food supply of the country. 

 The irrigation works have also been largely instrumental in 

 relieving congested districts. Some of the great canals, 

 in the North-West Provinces and the Punjab were under- 

 taken in districts that were sparsely inhabited ; within ten 

 years from their construction the country became fully 

 populated. 



With regard to the value of irrigation works in mitigating 

 the horrors and cost of famines, in the Sholapur district, 

 where four famines have occurred since 1846, and 

 where the cost to the State of the last two famines in i8q6 

 and 1899 was equal to 1,150,000/., the estimated loss 

 is reckoned at 50,000/. a year, which, capitalised 

 at 4 per cent., amounts to i^ millions of pounds as the 

 limit of unproductive expenditure that might be incurred 

 for the sake of avoiding the future cost of famine relief 

 for this district alone. During the terrible famine of 1876, 

 for which a large relief fund was raised in this country, 

 55 million of lives were lost, although the Indian Govern- 

 ment expended 11 millions of pounds in relief. 



Many of the great works already undertaken have been 

 the direct outcome of famines. The great famine of 1837 

 in Bengal led to the project of the Ganges Canal, which 

 has now 5500 miles of main canal and branches ; the famine 

 which desolated Orissa and the north of India in 1864, when 

 a million of the inhabitants lost their lives by starvation, 

 notwithstanding the expenditure of upwards of 6J millions: 

 of pounds in combating the famine, and also more than 

 3 millions in works of irrigation, resulted in the policy since 

 adopted of systematically carrying out extraordinary public 

 j works and expending half a million a year in developing 



