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took up the subject of irrigation by canals or other great 
works ; since then, the work has been steadily going on, and 
with it the names of Cautly, Cotton, Fife, Baker, and others, 
are honourably associated ; nearly the whole of the peninsula 
is now provided in those regions where water is needed, and 
a vast area of land, that would otherwise be sterile, is brought 
under cultivation. The works, consisting of canals of various 
sizes, dams or anicuts, lakes and tanks, extend from Hima- 
laya to Comorin, and, to effect this, great rivers, such as the 
Granges, Indus, Jumna, Sone, Sutlej, Ravi, Mahanuddi, 
Godavery, Kistna, Cavery, Colerun, Tunga-Badra, and 
Tapti, have been laid under contribution, with many other 
lesser streams, for the formation of artificial lakes and re- 
servoirs ; whilst several others are in project. An idea of the 
magnitude of the work may be derived from the length in 
miles of the canals that form the canal system in India. 
The total length in Bengal, Madras, and Bomba}', amounts 
to 4,900 miles ; but this does not include the Tanjore 
system, which is 700, the inundation canals of the Punjab, 
1,550, or the canals of Sind, 5,600 miles. Thus there are 
12,750 miles of lesser or greater canals, whilst the total 
length of the distributing canals is unknown. In Northern 
India alone, however, it amounts to 8,300 miles. The area 
now irrigated amounts to 1,900,000 acres in Madras and 
Bombay, 300,000 in Behar and Orissa, 1,450,000 acres in 
N.W. Provinces, 1,350,000 in Punjab, and 1,250,000 in Sind ; 
in all, 6,310,000, — nearly six and a half millions of acres. 
The area irrigable by canals is yet considerably greater than 
even this large total, so that the system is capable of exten- 
sion. The capital outlay by the State on this canal system 
may be set down at twenty and a quarter millions sterling, 
on which the net returns yield an interest of six per cent. 
Sir R. Temple says : * — ff Apart from the direct receipts from 
these canals, many indirect benefits accrue. These benefits are 
represented by the security afforded to agriculture, the as- 
surance provided for the people against the extremities of 
drought and famine, the protection of the land revenue, the 
instruction of the husbandmen by the example of the superior 
husbandry established, and the introduction of superior pro- 
ducts. The value of the canals during the recent famines has 
been inestimable. Without irrigation, these calamities, 
great as they are, would have been infinitely greater. The 
value of the produce which the canals saved in order to 
feed a famishing people, equalled the capital outlay on their 
construction.” 
* “ India in 1880 .” 
