cliv Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S.. XIII, 



That water is the limiting factor in the agricultural production of 

 North- West India is generally recognized. The continuous development 

 of the work of the Irrigation Department is the outward and visible sign 

 that the State is dealing with one of the greatest problems in Indian 

 agriculture in a practical manner. The supply of irrigation water is, how- 

 ever, only the first stage in irrigation. Equally important is the dis- 

 covery of the best use of this water and how we can extract from each unit 

 its utmost duty. The provision of water is the work of the engineer. 

 The discovery of the best method of using it is the work of the Agricul- 

 tural Department. 



The present position of irrigation in North- West India is this. Gov- 

 ernment has provided a magnificent system of canals which protect the 

 country from famine and which increase its production. The people, 

 however, do not know how to use this water to advantage and are mak- 

 ing all kinds of mistakes in irrigation practice and are doing injury to the 

 country. They have yet to realize the evils which follow from over- 

 watering alluvial soils. 



The waste of water is not the only defect in agricultural practice in 

 the North- West. The necessity of increasing the supply of organic 

 matter in desert soils is often lost sight of and insufficient use is made of 

 the nitrogen collecting leguminous crops. The object of thi3 paper is to 

 suggest a means by which the fertility of the soil in this region can be in- 

 creased and by which the present supplies of irrigation water can be 

 made to go much further. 



II. The Place op Leguminous Chops in Desert Agriculture. 



The obvious method of increasing and maintaining the amount of or- 

 ganic matter in the soil is by means of green-manuring. In desert agri- 

 culture this is, however, a counsel of perfection. The problem is to 

 discover a method by which the organic content of these soils can be in- 

 creased which will, at the same time, prove profitable to the cultivator. 

 It is suggested that the solution will bo found in the extended growth of 

 fodder crops like shaftal, lucerne, berseem, senji and guar. 



No great extension of thesa fodder crops is likely unless they can be 

 dried and baled for use as fodder for transport purposes. Besides enrich- 

 ing the land, their extended cultivation will help in the feeding of the 

 work cattle and allow of an improvement of the fodder without the use 

 of grain. The albuminoid ratio of dried lucerne and dried shaftal is 

 very high, from 1 : 3 to 1 : 4. .Actual feeding trials in the Army at 

 Quetta prove that working animals like horses and mules thrive on com- 

 paratively small quantities of such fodder. 



With proper precautions, drying and baling fodder like lucerne and 

 shaftal present no great difficulties even in the arid climate of Baluchis- 

 tan. First class produce has been prepared, the use of which is likely 

 to reduce the weight of fodder taken by an Army on active service by 25 

 to 30 per cent, an obvious military advantage. The trials of baled 

 shaftal in 1915 and 1910 in the Army at Quetta have proved so successful 

 that it has been decided to purchase 6,000 mds. in 1917 for full tests by 

 the various units of the Fourth Division. Arrangements have been ruad 

 to grow and bale this amount near Quetta. 



III. The Saving of Irrigation Water. 



In order to increase the organic matter in the soil by means of legu- 

 minous crops it is evident that a good deal of water will be required. 



This can be obtained by the application of water-saving methods in 

 the growth of wheat, the most important cereal crop of North- West 

 India. * 



Since the year 1912, a considerable amount of attention has been 

 paid at Quetta to the discovery, under Indian conditions, of the maxi- 

 mum duty of water when applied to wheat. The details of the work- 

 are to be found in Bulletins 4 and 7 of the Fruit Experiment Station, 



