On the Condiiioiis of Wheat-G-roivrng in India. 13 
was viewed as the sanguine expectation of an enthusiast. Dr. 
Watson wrote : — 
"The completion of the Indus Valley Railway is thus calculated to 
bring about a complete revolution in the wheat trade of India, which ia 
likely to assume in the Panjab a magnitude considerably greater than that it 
b likely to attain in the districts fix)m which the wheat is at present exported." 
Greater facilities of transport within the Panjdb are even 
now being projected, so that the possible magnitude to which 
the Panjdb wheat trade may attain need by no means be viewed 
as established. The beneficial eflfects of a greatly extended 
railway system than India even now possesses cannot be over- 
estimated. 
But it is impossible to conclude this brief account of the 
improvements which have already been effected and are still 
further being carried out in India without reminding the 
reader of the Irrigation Worls. By the aid of canals, and to a 
still greater degree by means of wells, immense tracts of country 
have been brought under crops which were formerly almost non- 
productive. By a system of Government aid the soil of India, 
wherever water can be reached, is being penetrated by wells. 
But of the total cultivated land only some thirty million acres 
up to date are artificially irrigated. Of course immense tracts of 
India require little or no aid in this direction. The periodicity 
of the rains and the accompanying inundations fully provide for 
the wants of the cultivator in such regions ; and there are soils 
in India so retentive of moisture that they remain permanently 
fruitful without requiring either to be inundated or artificially 
irrigated. Of the thirty million acres artificially irrigated, 
perhaps not more than five million derive their supplies of 
water from canals. The great Ganges Canal, which irrigates 
the Doab (that is, an interfluvial tract) between the Ganges and 
the Jumna, was opened in 1854. The main stream from which 
the arteries of supply spread over the Doab is 525 miles in 
length. 
But there are other considerations which, while of minor 
importance compared to the latent resources of the country, are 
still deserving of notice. There are soils and climates in India, 
if not in one district, at least in another, that are suitable for 
the cultivation of any known crop. Within her own ten'itory 
India can thus produce all the requirements of modern trade. 
Int^rprovincial exchange, thx'ough the conveniences now afforded 
by road, rail, and river, can meet the wants of the people, and 
afford over and above a large surplus of any desired commodity 
for export. The agricultural holdings are small : the capital 
invested in plant absolutely insignificant. It is thus possible 
for the cultivator to turn the fields which he has devoted to 
