INTRODUCTION. 



xi 



Tillage depends so greatly on the efficiency of the draught power, that a few words may be added 

 on the cattle which are used for agricultural purposes. These are almost entirely bullocks, since 

 buffaloes, though common in many parts of the Provinces, are not capable of continuous effort in a 

 hot sun, and are further disqualified in some places by caste prejudice. Careful enquiry has shown 

 that there is one plough bullock or bufKdo for every 4^ or 5 acres cultivated. The bullocks may be 

 either locally bred or imported. In the Eastern Districts local bred cattle are the rule, and in the 

 Western Districts the exception, and it follows that the cattle of the Eastern Districts are the worst, 

 and of those of the Western Districts the best, in the Provinces. In the Districts of the central 

 Doab, enquiries have shown that imported cattle constitute about 45 per cent, of the total. The 

 principal breeding grounds in the Provinces are the jungles which fringe their upper and lower 

 border below the Himalayas on one side, and the Central India hills on the other. So far as numbers 

 go the Sub-Himalayan breeding tract is the most important, but for quality the Bundelkhand is very 

 far superior.* But the tracts from which the best cattle are driven are those known as Mewat and 

 Harriana, the former lying principally within the territory of native Rajputana States, and the latter 

 in the Punjab Districts of Pohtak and Hissar. Thousands of cattle are brought annually from these 

 tracts to the large cattle fairs held at Batesar, Makhanpur and elsewhere, where they change hands 

 from one set of dealers to another, by whom they are retailed to the cultivators. 



The importance of the part played by irrigation in the agricultiire of the Provinces may be 

 judged of by the fact that it isf applied to at least one acre out of every four under crops, and if those 

 crsps are excluded which are grown in the rainy seasons, the proportion rises to one in every 2^ acres. 

 This is at the outset somewhat surprising, since the smallest average annual rainfall of any District is 

 24*51 inches, which would be considered amply sufficient in English farming. But the rainfall in- 

 stead of being spread throughout the year is almost wholly concentrated in three or four months, 

 and is so capricious in its quality and its distribution, that farming scarcely rises above speculation in 

 great portion of the Provinces, unless provision be made to supplement the rainfall by irrigation. 

 The undoubted increase in irrigation during the British occupation is therefore easily explained, since 

 with the increase of population it became a matter of increasing importance to render harvest pros- 

 pects as secure as possible. 



The monsoon rains which commence about the end of June are, as a rule, over by the beginning 

 of October at latest, and the rabi crops are not sown until a fortnight later than this. Theoretically 

 they should be refreshed by the winter rains, which are due by the end of December, but practically 

 this only occurs in the Western and Sub-Himalayan Districts, and in the centre and south of the 

 Provinces, unless provision be made for irrigating them, they have to make shift from sowing time to 

 harvest on the moisture, which the soil retained after the end of the monsoon. Even during the 

 months when the monsoon rains are at their height long breaks often occur, which are especially 

 harmful to the maize and rice crop, and hence it comes that there is a considerable amount of irriga- 

 tion in the kharif season if water can be obtained with moderate trouble and expense. 



There is a very considerable difference in the average amount of rainfall which is obtained by 

 different parts of the Provinces, and we should prima facie expect to find corresponding differences in 

 the extent of irrigation. But the comparison is complicated by a number of other diflFerences, (those 

 in facility of irrigation and character of crops being the chief,) and the relation between ramfall and 

 irrigation is therefore to some extent obscured. The following figures are derived from the annual 

 agricultural returns of the 30 temporarily settled N.-W. Provinces Districts, being based on the 



* The average quality of Sub-Himalayan breeds is poor, but they produce some of the finest cattle in India.— W. (!. B. 



t Judging from the returns of the 30 N.-W. Provinces temporarily settled Districts for which alone statistics are possessed. 



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