30 Quantity of Water Consumed in Irrigation. 



The figures, as regards the soils, can only be considered as 

 approximations. The average for the whole canal also does 

 not represent the average consumption in fully irrigated 

 fields, since some fields are- said to have received only one 

 watering. 



10. Results obtained in two other cases may be here 

 briefly noted, leaving till later (see pars. 25 to 27) remarks 

 on their connection with this paper. In 1868-69, a year of 

 great scarcity in the North-western Provinces of India, 

 when the irrigation from the Ganges and Eastern Jumna 

 canals was greater than in any previous year and for several 

 years afterwards, the area irrigated by the Ganges canal, 

 with an average supply of 4668 cubic feet of water per 

 second during the cold season, was 794,794 acres, the duty 

 obtained being 170 acres per cubic foot per second.* In the 

 second case, the author found by measurements of discharge 

 and irrigation from a reservoir in Raj pu tana during two 

 years, that in five months of the cold season (November to 

 March) an average of 65,000 cubic feet of water was con- 

 sumed per acre (a depth of nearly 18 inches) in three 

 waterings of about 6 inches each in depth. With a supply of 

 12 cubic feet per second, gauged at the tank sluices, running 

 for ten hours, an average area of 20 acres was watered 

 daily. 



III. — Consumption of Water in the Fields. 



11. The author, a few years ago, carefully measured the 

 quantity of water actually used in irrigating cold weather 

 crops from certain wells. It was found in one case that 

 29,579 cubic feet per acre (a depth of 8-15 inches) had been 

 used, and in another 36,357 cubic feet per acre (a depth of 

 10*02 inches). - )- The soil was a light loam, of considerable 

 depth, corresponding, perhaps, with the average land irri- 

 gated from the Ganges canal. But since well irrigation is 

 more economical than that from canals, an increase must be 

 made before applying these results to canal irrigation. The 

 author is of opinion that, including the waste of cultivators, 

 an increase of about one-third on the average of the above 



*Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, Vol. VII. (Eoorkee, 1870), 

 page 306. 



f Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, Vol. II., new series (Eoorkee, 

 1873), page 150. 



