113 new system of supplying tanks with water, [January 



number of cubic feet of water by actual measurement can be as- 

 certained, and a proportionate quantity of ground planted or laid 

 out with the certainty of realizing one or more crops which at pre- 

 sent can never be the case whilst dependant on the precarious state 

 of the weather. How often in this country, it may be asked, has the 

 toil of the peasant and the seed been thrown away from the want of 

 a small quantity of seasonable rain to bring the crop to maturity ; so 

 panial indeed is the rain, that whilst one part of the country is 

 comparatively deluged, another within so short a distance as 50 

 miles is almost dry. This is not the case however with regard to 

 rivers, which flowing through a vast extent of country and in most 

 cases feeling the influence of both monsoons, are certain at some 

 period of the year of containing an abundant supply of water, and 

 should apprehension prevail of a failure of that supply by the river 

 going rapidly down, it will only be necessary to increase the power 

 of the engine to derive additional advantage from it, while it lasts. 



When the quaiitity of water in the reservoir which is above 

 the level of the plain has been expended, the same engine may 

 be employed in raising the remainder — a strict attention to 

 the theory of hydraulics will greatly economise the power 

 lobe put in motion. Surely, if the enormous sums expended 

 on tanks under the present system (such for instance as that of 

 Carongooly) can repay with profit to the renter, and advantage to 

 the government, their aggregate outlay, even when four or five 

 successive seasons fail in production, and from what I have been 

 able to ascertain, it appears that only in very favorable years the 

 tank is completely filled, and the whole of the paddy land brought 

 into cultivation, the new system will certainly produce an immense 

 net revenue or interest on the outlay of capital after the payment 

 of the labourer, and the contingent expenses of working the engine. 

 At first from the novelty and difficulty of procuring Engineers the 

 expense of cultivation will be greater than when clever and scienti- 

 fic natives are brought forv/ard, and ! am sure there are many to be 

 found both capable and willing after a little instruction to 

 superintend the management of the engines ; in proof of this opini- 

 on 1 would adduce the instance of how closely all mechanical 

 improvements from England are copied by the Indian artisan. 



The floodgates of the reservoir might be constructed of iron, 

 wroughtinthe works at Porto-Novo, and fuel for working the engines 



