198 



Effects of the Famine of 1833. 



[No. 30. 



August, and the rain during September, October and No- 

 vember was not less than 10 inches. 



We have yet to learn how often such seasons occur. 



The remaining two-thirds of the rich alluvial soils of Gun- 

 toor are more immediately dependant upon local rains, and 

 of the land suited to rice cultivation there is a large portion 

 which cannot be so employed, its locality not being adapted 

 to the construction of tanks. 



There are said to be 5536 tanks in the Guntoor District ; 

 3504 in repair and 2032 out of repair, but of these it would 

 be found that the greater part are very small, — ponds for 

 cattle and not tanks for irrigation. Of the tanks for irrigation 

 hardly one can be said to be in perfect repair, while of those 

 that are out of repair, perhaps not one in three is capable of 

 useful repair and not one in ten worth the expense of repair- 

 ing. Some advantage would be derived from putting the 

 best of the tanks into proper order, and here and there con- 

 structing new ones, but tanks which are filled by local rains 

 and by the small nullahs and streams which traverse short 

 distances cannot supply irrigation in seasons of drought. 



The want of water even in ordinary seasons in some parts 

 of the Guntoor District is very great, and there is too much 

 reason for fearing that there are tracts of some magnitude, 

 where it is all but impossible by any means to obtain in sea- 

 sons such as 1832-33, sufficient supplies of that first necessary 

 of life. 



In the town of Guntoor itself, where the wells are deep 

 and numerous and some of them really magnificent works, (es- 

 pecially one dug out by the convicts under the orders of the 

 justly lamented Mr. Newberry) there is almost annually great 

 scarcity, the water that oozes into wells cut deep in the granite 

 not being enough for the population, and many springs, 

 tolerably abundant before 1832 having since then failed. At 



