GENERAL CONSIDERATION. 1 9 



tn the world and used for irrigation whenever they could be used, 

 and it bears out the statement I make that the supply from artesian 

 sources is always limited, is always very small, and that no great 

 area can be irrigated thereby. If all the artesian wells in the world 

 that are used for irrigation were assembled in one county of 

 Dakota they would not irrigate that county. 1 " 



Since, therefore, the supply from artesian reservoirs is at best 

 local and inadequate, we must look to some different source to pro- 

 vide a storage of water that will apply to the whole area concerned. 

 This store generally exists without going to such inconveniently 

 great depths as is often the case with artesian water : it is the 



reservoir formed by "ground-water," or "sub- 

 Irrigation from shallow 



wells. soil-water " all over the surface of the land. All 



over India this resource is made available through innumerable shal- 

 low wells. As pointed out in a previous paragraph, it is somewhat 

 a matter of personal taste whether some of these wells should be 

 called "artesian" or not, but they are to all practical purposes shal- 

 low percolation wells, and the reservoir from which they draw their 

 supply could not properly be called artesian, however much the 

 name might be applicable to individual wells. According to experts 

 there is not much room for improvement either in the mode of 

 construction or in the economical working of shallow wells as prac- 

 tised in India. But the system could be considerably developed, 

 more perhaps by private enterprise than by the agency of Govern- 

 ment, and it is, I believe, a well recognised principle that the farm- 

 ers should be given every encouragement to construct new wells. 

 Years of minimum rainfall ought to be particularly suited to this 

 work, as it is easy to sink the wells to a good depth below the 

 average level of saturation of the ground. A great deal was accom- 

 plished in this line during the last abnormally dry season of 1P99- 

 1900 : a great many new wells have been sunk, and many old ones 

 deepened. 



1 Loc. cil., pp. 259-260. 



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