150 C. W. ODLING, ESQ., M.INST.C.E., C.S.I., ON 



I have digressed somewhat from my subject in order to bring 

 to notice a typical instance of expansion of trade and the 

 enterprise of the British mercantile marine. I trust that 

 Captain Macneill derived some benefit from his energy, but I 

 fear that the reward for the most part went to the great 

 shipping companies, who reaped where he had sown. 



Turning to the more innnediate subject of my lecture, T 

 find that in the year 1901-02, which is the last for which I 

 have been able to procure returns, 20 millions of acres were 

 irrigated by works constructed by the Indian Government. 

 The area of England is given in Whitakers Almanack at 

 32,600,000 acres, so that the area so irrigated in India is 

 equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the area of England. The 

 cultivated area of India is 226 million acres, less than one-tenth 

 of which was irrigated by State iri'igation works. The crops 

 irrigated were mainly food crops, other crops such as flax, linseed 

 not used for food do not cover more than about 10 per cent, of 

 the area irrigated, and allowing this margin, the food produced 

 was sufficient to feed 16 millions of people for a year. For some 

 of the smaller works no capital accounts are prepared, but the 

 works, for which such accounts have been kept, had, up to the 

 31st March, 1902, cost 29i millions of pounds, and the net 

 revenue, after paying working expenses, was £1,800,000, or 

 upwards of 6 per cent, on the capital outlay. These are, so far 

 as I can give them, the broad outlines of the extent and results 

 of irrigation works already carried out by the Government of 

 India. It is not to be supposed that there are not v/hat I may 

 call private irrigation works, such as field embankments, which 

 impound drainage water, and channels leading from tanks, 

 rivers, and streams. In years of good rainfall these works are 

 . said to irrigate some 14 millions of acres ; when the rainfall is 

 deficient that area is less by possibly 50 per cent. Wells are 

 also largely used for the irrigation of crops, other than rice, 

 12 millions of acres being so watered in a normal year. One 

 way or other something like one-fifth of the cultivated area of 

 India is artificially irrigated in ordinary years, and crops over 

 that area of land secured independently of the rainfall. 



The crops grown in India may be divided into autumn 

 crops — known as Kkarif — such as rice, millets, and pulses — 

 and spring crops known as Rahi, such as wheat, barley, and 

 linseed. The former are harvested in November and 

 December, and the latter in March and April. Sugar cane and 

 some other crops require a whole year to mature. The cliief 

 crops which are irrigated are rice, wheat, barley, and sugar cane. 



