December i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
397 
may bo considered sufficiently clear and conclusive for 
that couutry. it is not likely that people out here 
will admit that what has been found true fur a far 
off land must necessarily be true for India. 
Another matter, to which, no doubt, the Agricul- 
tural Department will direct its attention, is a ine;ins 
of more economically exploiting the rabed areas. We 
have teen what an enormous loss of organic nutri- 
ment is occasioned by burning the produce ; possibly 
some method might be devised, by which only a small 
portion should be burnt and the rest utilized in the 
natural way. — Tinas of India. 
HALF-A-CENTURY OF IRRIGATION WORK 
IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 
Southern India is famous for its possession of re- 
mains, more or less perfect or in ruins, of irrigation 
works of great magnitude, formed by the genius of a 
race of ancient tank -makers, who, it is next to 
certain, stamped the impress of their skill not only 
on their own country, but on the tank region 
of Ceylon also. Not less famous is the Southern Indian 
Presidency in the annals of modern irrigation for 
works which are amongst the grandest and most 
successful which the world can show, the result 
of the genius of Sir Arthur Cotton and oOicers 
like-minded with that groat man. Like many other 
great men, Cotton had a hobby in favour of water 
transit which he was inclined to ride to death in 
tilting against the far speedier and more effective 
carriage by railway. Our own Governor's re- 
cent notice of the canal to Chilaw shows that, 
apart from the great expense of cutting canals, 
the expenditure necessitated in keeping them open 
for trallic, by the repair of eroded banks and by the 
removal of silt, renders them in many cases inferior 
to railways as transit agencies, even on the score of 
oheapness, which is the great argument, — and a 
very true and forcible argument in some cases — 
in favour of water carriage. In India there are 
some strikingly successful examples of extensive 
canalization, where the two objects of land irrig- 
ation and cheap water carriage are combined (as 
was supposed to be the case with our Ceylon "Sea 
of Prakrama "), and others in which water carriage 
alone is served, as in our own system by which 
sections of canal connect the salt pans of Puttalam, 
via backwaters and rivers, with Ratnapura and 
intervening stations, including Colombo. In Madras 
in modern days, the greatest successes seem to 
have been achieved with works such as are now in 
progress in Ceylon, to restore and add to the irrig- 
ation and fertility of the delta of the Walawe river, 
near Ilambantota, — by the formation of anicuts 
or weirs across rivers so as to divert portions of 
their waters into irrigation channels ramifying 
through alluvial lands and bringing out their latent 
fertility by the application of the necessary moisture — 
a tropic sun doing its vivifying part. These remarks 
have been suggested by the perusal in Sir Charlus 
Lawson's Madras Jubilee Volume, of a concise sum- 
mary of irrigation work accomplished in the Madras 
Presidency daring the half-century terminating with 
the Queen's Jubilee. A similar account of oper- 
ations in Ceylon,— although the half-century was 
long spent before the Urit sh ( iovernmcnt was fully 
aroused to the duty of furthering the irrigation 
of the soil so practically appreciated by many of the 
ancient monarchs, would bo Daefol and interesting. 
The oases of Madras and Ceylon differ, essentially, 
however. With us works of magnitude oanalBt 
in efforts, more or less successful tu restore ancient 
tanks and channels, such us lioraboruwowa, Kun- 
tuluy, and what is likely to be, and wo trust will 
be a great success, Kalawewa and the connected 
Yodaela, the latter destined to supply irrigation 
and drinking water along its route of fifty-four 
miles to the ancient city of Anuradhapura, the tanks 
in and around which it will fill and keep lull. The 
distinctly new works here have not involved designs 
of any magnitude. In the Madras Presidency the 
process has been exactly reversed: the ancient 
irrigation works are in the Jubilee year of the 
Queen's reign very much what they were when the 
reign commenced in 1837 ; while the modern engin- 
eers have compelled the deltaic waters of the Coleroon, 
the Kistna, the Godavery and other great rivers, 
instead of sending the whole volume of their waters 
uselessly to the sea, to yield portions of them for the 
use of man, in the irrigation of the soil and in aiding 
inland navigation. The one exception is the delta 
system of the Cauvery, which is virtually of native 
origin, the deltaio branches of the river forming 
natural irrigation channels. The engineering works 
cf this great and beneficial system have, however, 
been very largely improved in modern times by Eng- 
lish engineers. 
We quote the interesting article to which we 
have been referring, and which our roadera will find 
well worthy of perusal. 
(From the Madras Jubilee Volume.) 
The net result during the last fifty years of the work 
of the Public Works Departmfnt in the matter of 
ordinary irrigation works, that is, old sative works, 
such as tauks and channels, may be summarised as fol- 
lows. A great number of works have been kept in good 
repair, and others greatly improved; but the condition 
of the bulk of them is in the year 1887 muoh what it 
was in 1837. On the other hand, much valuable inform- 
ation has been collected at the cost of much time and 
trouble, and is recorded in a convenient shape, and 
matters have geuerally been put in train for the steady 
and continuous repair and up-keep of this important 
class of works ou scientific principles. It may rea- 
sonably be hoped therefore that the reviewer of fifty 
years hence will be able to record great and uniform 
progress. If, in the matter of ordinary irrigation 
works, the progress may not be considered altogether 
satisfactory, in the conception and execution of works 
that are great in an Engineering point of view, and 
successful beyond measure as pecuniary investments, 
and as a source of wealth and prosperity to the coun- 
try, the fifty years since the Accession of Her Majesty 
have been most fruitful. 
Among the most successful and important may be 
mentioned the Coleroon, Godavery, and Kistna Auicuts, 
which, constructed across the rivers of the same names, 
ensure the irrigation of the three great deltas of the 
presidency ; the Nellore, Streevaikuntham, Palar, and 
Peldeudorai Auicuts, built respectively across the 
Pennair in Nellore district, the Tambraparni in Tin- 
uevelly, and the Palar and Vellaur in the North and 
South Arcot districts. The channels taking off from 
these latter anicuts feed series of tanks, all old native 
works, the supply to which, now fairly certain and 
sufficient, was in days previous to the auicuts most pre- 
carious and variable. These works therefore may be 
considered productive, that is they give in some cases 
a very large, and in every case some percentage of 
return on the outlay incurred. Among later works the 
Saugam and Barur Projects may be mentioned. 
Neitbi-r of these is yet fully completed. The former 
consists of an anient across t h<« Pennair river in Nellore 
district, below the txisting Nellore anient, and is in- 
tended to render certain tho irrigation under existing 
tanks, and ulso to greatly extend it ; while the latter 
is a scheme for the improvement of the supply of 
water to a uumber of tustiuB tauks bv constructing 
nn uuicut across tbe l'enn.iir river, in Salem district. 
The Son KOm Project, which should be completed in 
I -i'.i-'JO, i-> c ilculnted to give » return of ."< per cent, on 
tho total capital outlay : while the liarur. which ■■ 
uow nearly complete, will, it is expected, pay G per ceut. 
