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



they speak of two or three crops a year instead of one. Again, about 

 200 A.D. the Rajah Chandra Gupta constructed some of those works 

 that originated in India. Then again, Tamarlane, who conquered 

 India, had encouraged irrigation works. The first year a man was to- 

 have his land free ; the second year he could pay what he liked, and 

 the third year he had to pay taxes. But since those days, of course^ 

 there has been a great advance in irrigation — one hears of it all over 

 the world. 



On the second page of the paper the author refers to famine. It 

 has been stated by the first Famine Commission that one acre of 

 food grains irrigated will feed from two and a half to three persons 

 a year, and I thought that perhaps a few results would be interesting 

 to this meeting. Taking the five principal provinces of India, the 

 area which is represented by irrigation works is about 16^ million 

 acres. Taking that standard of two and a half to three persons an 

 acre being fed per year, these irrigation works will feed about 42 

 millions of people for one year. The actual population of these 

 provinces is about 200,000,000. So that, approximately, one-fifth 

 of the population has its food supplied by works administered by the 

 Government works of India. 



Now the action of irrigation works in reference to famine is, I 

 think, often misunderstood. It is a common thing to hear people 

 who are not acquainted with the details to say, " Why don't they 

 construct more irrigation works here and there and so prevent 

 famine 1 " 



It is one o£ the most remarkable things I know that people always 

 think if you want to save a country from famine you have only to 

 catch irrigation engineers and irrigate the country ; but they forget 

 the fact that you cannot irrigate the land without water. There 

 are many parts of India where water is not available and you cannot, 

 therefore, irrigate the whole country. That proportion of the people 

 who can be protected from famine is, no doubt, considerable ; but 

 the actual proportion which is aff'orded is really somewhat larger, 

 because there are other means which afford an increase of food supply. 

 But it is certainly a fact that although irrigation works will, in a. 

 particular district, when constructed, entirely prevent famine in 

 that district, they will not prevent famine very far beyond its own 

 area. I mean they will protect a zone beyond it, but not much more 

 than that. I am afraid as to the deaths at Orissa in 1866, it is a 



