178 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



[Sept. 1896. 



canals and tanks, though these two kinds of works are frequently 

 used in combination. 



The storage of water in tanks for the purpose of irrigation 

 is very common in Southern India. The works are for the 

 most part of native origin ; but much has been done under the 

 British Government in repairing and improving old tanks, and 

 in constructing new works in Madras, Bombay, Deccan, and 

 Ajmere-Merwara. 



Canal irrigation, in which the water is drawn directly from 

 a river, has been practised on the largest scale and with the 

 most successful results in the North- Western Provinces, the 

 Panjab, and the deltas of the large rivers in the Madras 

 Presidency. Irrigation canals are of two descriptions — viz., 

 " perennial " and " inundation." The former are furnished with 

 permanent headworks and weirs, and are capable of irrigating 

 large tracts of country throughout the year, independently of 

 the local rainfall. The magnitude of some of the works of 

 this class, which are almost entirely due to British enterprise 

 and skill, may be judged by a few instances. The Ganges 

 Canal, which has been in operation since .1854, and has cost 

 Ex. 2,925,528, comprises 459 miles of main canal, and 3,961 

 miles of distributaries, and in the year under review supplied 

 water to 351,637 acres. The Sirhind Canal in the Panjab, 

 which was completed in 1887, has cost Rx. 3,793,999, and 

 consists of 542 miles of main channels, and 4,655 miles of 

 distributaries. In Madras the great deltaic irrigation systems 

 of the Godaveri, Kistna, and Cauvery have respective lengths 

 of main channel of 503, 329, and 844 miles, and together 

 irrigate upwards of 2,000,000 acres. The inundation canals, 

 which are peculiar to the Panjab and Sind, are of a much 

 simpler and less costly description than the perennial canals. 

 They are for the most part simply earthen channels, made 

 without the expensive machinery of masonry dams and sluices, 

 and are supplied with water by the annual rise in May of the 

 Indus and its affluents. They constitute a very useful class of 

 irrigation works, and in some cases have produced most successful 

 financial results. 



The works to which the preceding paragraph applies in most 

 cases take off from the larger rivers, which, even in times of 

 drought, can be depended upon for an unfailing supply of water. 

 There is, however, a large class of works, chiefly tanks, in which 

 the supply of water is more or less dependent on the local 

 rainfall, either directly or through the medium of the smaller 

 rivers which dry up in hot seasons. There remains the method 

 of irrigation more extensively used in India than any other — 

 viz., that by wells, which, however, does not come directly 

 within the scope of operations of the Public Works Department. 

 There are great differences in the financial success of the 

 irrigation works in various provinces. These are due to the 

 various physical conditions of the country in regard to surface, 

 soil, climate, and the absence or presence of large rivers with a 



