their own sole benefit. For the increased fertility conferred on the land by works of irrigation, the State receives a greatly enhanced assessment; but the cultivator finds also his due advantage in the greater value of the crop, and his comparative independence of the seasons.

In our climate, water is in excess, and draining is the chief instrument of artificial fertilisation. In India, water is in deficiency; irrigation is there the chief means of fertilising the land, and in some years the only means of rescuing it from entire barrenness. In England, the landowner is a private individual, and he generally defrays the chief cost of draining for the occupier. In India, the Government is the landlord; the occupiers of the soil are for the most part miserably poor; irrigation can only be conducted on a large scale; and therefore the expense of it, whenever it is adequately performed, must be defrayed by the Government.

The Madras territories lie between the eighth and twentieth degrees of north latitude. They are all, therefore, exposed to the burning sun of the tropics; but the two coasts have seasons in a great degree different from each other. Along the whole length of the western coast, there is a narrow slip of low land, scarcely exceeding forty miles in width, which is bounded on one side by the sea, and on the other by the great chain of mountains called the Western Ghauts. In this narrow tract, and on the crest of the neighbouring mountains, the westerly periodical rains, which fall from June to October, never fail. Their influence extends, with diminished force and certainty, about half across the peninsula. But nature has made some compensation for their absence in the form of the land, for the whole watershed of the wide country from the Western Ghauts to the Bay of Bengal is eastward, and the numerous rivers and smaller watercourses, many of them dry for months, which rise in the Western Ghauts, or within the range of the westerly rains, bear annually to the Bay of Bengal vast volumes of water, with which the burnt-up plains of the Carnatic may be fertilised. On the western coasts, 130 inches of rain are no uncommon fall, and on some exposed points as much as 400 inches has been known to fall within a year. But on the eastern coast, the average fall of rain is but 48 inches, and that with the greatest irregularity, nearly the whole being in six weeks of October and November. Five or ten inches sometimes fall in a day, so that, unless stored up, the greater part is useless for cultivation. But sometimes the rains fail altogether, and in such a season the want of artificial means of preserving the water makes itself felt. We have seen what are the effects of the destruction

of the potato crop in Ireland, of only one portion of the harvest, in a country intersected by roads, and nowhere a hundred miles distant from the sea. From that visitation it may be conceived what must be the sufferings of the people when there has not fallen rain enough to permit the seed to be sown,when the earth is indeed of iron, and the heaven of brass, when not a blade of corn springs up for the food of man, and not a blade of grass for the food of cattle. Such was the case in the Guntoor district in 1833. The periodical rains had failed generally on the Coromandel coast, and at Guntoor had failed entirely. In Tanjore, where artificial irrigation is on a large scale, the evil was comparatively little felt. But in Guntoor the blow fell with all its force. The area of the district is 4700 square miles, and it contained, in 1832, 512,000 inhabitants, of whom it is believed that no less than 200,000 died of starvation and of the fever which succeeded the famine. The conformation of the land in this district peculiarly suits it for irrigation, as the ground slopes down from an elevated centre, and the ruined works of former rulers attest the use to which this circumstance was once put. To prevent the recurrence of such a calamity as that which occurred in 1833, a work of irrigation was some time since ordered by the Court of Directors, which would ensure a permanent supply of water for a great extent of land. The estimated expense of this work is only 155,000Z., and it is calculated that it would yield an increase of revenue of not less than 73,000l. yearly, or 48 per cent. on the outlay; and we are told, even the Government express their opinion that the permanent annual gain to the revenue will not fall short of 30 per cent.' This important work was long deferred on account of the want of engineers; but it has now for two years been vigorously prosecuted, and when once it is completed, the recurrence of such a visitation as that of 1833 becomes extremely improbable.

It is sufficiently evident from this simple instance how great is the value of such works, whether they are intended to store up the rain water in a tank, or to collect or distribute the supply which flows along the beds of rivers.

Their construction and repair is both a duty and a source of profit, and it was not neglected by the ancient rulers of the country. Excluding the western coast, the Madras territories contain eighteen districts, in all of which such works are required. In fourteen of those districts, omitting Tanjore, the best irrigated of all, the public accounts show that there are upwards of 43,000 works in repair, besides more than 10,000 out of repair, all of which were constructed before the English had

possession of the country. Many of these were formed with little engineering skill, many with a view to ostentation, or to perpetuate the name of the founder, rather than to a profitable return; but taken together they form an aggregate of property of the highest importance. The public revenue derived from them is no less than 1,350,000l. yearly, besides 150,000l. more, which have been alienated under the form of rent-free holdings, making a total of a million and a half sterling annually. The average yearly cost of their repairs for the last ten years has been 70,000l. Looking beyond the mere interest which the Government has in these works, and assuming the Government share to be two-fifths of the whole crop, the entire yearly produce must be estimated at three millions and three quarters sterling.

The works may be classed in two divisions, under the heads of channels and tanks. One class of channels depends on the low freshes of the rivers, to take advantage of which either a permanent stone drain is constructed, or a temporary one of earth is thrown up every year. The water is thus conveyed into a channel, sometimes fifty miles long, and is let out to the lands which require it by sluices in the banks. Another class of channels depends on the high floods, and obtains the water in a similar manner, and, the supply being more precarious, conveys it, to one or more tanks, where it remains stored up for use. A tank is constructed like any fish pond in England, by throwing an earthen embankment across a valley; but the size of these reservoirs is very usually such that it is necessary to protect the dam against the action of the waves by a revetment of rough stones. Some of these tanks are, indeed, worthy of the name of lakes, such as the Cauverypauk and Veeranum tanks, of which the embankments are respectively four and nine miles long, or the still greater Pounairy tank, in the Trichinopoly country, now out of repair, the dam of which is twenty-six miles long. These embankments are pierced by sluices of masonry, by means of which the water is let out below when required. There are usually one or more outlets, called Calingalas, constructed of masonry, near the end of the embankment, and formed as a precaution against sudden floods. For this purpose they are lower than the general level of the embankment, so that the superfluous water passes out through them, and when the season of supply is ending they are closed up. One or two rows of stone pillars are usually built into the masonry across the outlet to support the temporary dam thus constructed.

It will readily be understood that works of such extent and

magnitude must stand in need of frequent repairs. These may be either emergent, as when an embankment is breached, and must be repaired forthwith, in order to save the water and the produce of the year; or ordinary, which include all such as are requisite to meet the action of waves, running water, and sudden floods, in wearing away earth-work, or damaging stone-work, — repairs, in short, which are as much a necessity for the preservation of the permanent effectiveness of these constructions, as those of a carriage or steam engine. We have stated that 70,000% has been the average yearly cost of the repairs, an amount which, if we assume, with the authors of this Report, that the original outlay on existing works was fifteen millions sterling, is only one half per cent. yearly on the first cost, while in England canals and works of that class require from three to four per cent. Any argument, however, which is thus brought forward, will depend for its conclusiveness on the correctness with which the original outlay was estimated, and this, it must be owned, is nothing more than a rough guess. We prefer an examination of facts which now exist to enable us to decide how far the repairs have been efficiently executed.

The public accounts of the year 1850, a favourable season, show that in the twelve chief irrigation districts there were under cultivation 1,787,909 acres. The same accounts state the land capable of irrigation to have been 2,682,260 acres, and that nearly 900,000 acres, or about a third of the whole, were not under cultivation, as, had the works been in proper order, they would, for the most part, have been. The accounts, however, though probably in most districts trustworthy, are admitted not to be altogether so; but whatever deductions may be made on this account, there will still remain a vast extent of land which is capable of irrigation by works now existing, but which, from their inefficient state, is not used.

The reports of the engineers who are in charge of the works throughout the country were laid before the Commissioners, and their testimony leads generally to the same conclusion. One states,From all that I have learnt respecting works in this division, they are in all respects, both as to original 'construction and present condition, in a most imperfect state.' Another reports, The whole of the irrigation in the subdivision, with the exception of the two Amauny Talooks of Vizagapatam, have been almost entirely neglected, and stand in great 'need of repair.' A third says, The tanks and channels generally are not by any means in a state of good order; many 'sluices are out of repair, more are required; the same as to

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calingalahs (outlets). Land is certainly left uncultivated for 'want of such works, or from their being inefficient.'

Another, while stating that the works are generally in tolerable order, adds, 'A large number of tanks require their sluices ' to be renewed, &c.; and in almost every talook the revenue ' accounts exhibit a loss for want of proper means of irrigation.'

In another division, the engineer officer in charge of the works reports that they are in general good repair; but the Commissioners state that there is a large extent of land there, now 'uncultivated for many years, though once irrigated and productive; and add, that all the works of the country are 'below their state of full efficiency, and incapable of effecting 'their proper amount of irrigation. The tanks are in want of

'sluices, or such as they have are out of order; or they have 'no calingalahs, or such as they have are too small or too high, ' and so the stability of the tank is in danger; or the bank is 'low and weak, and the Ryots are afraid to store a full tank; or their channels of supply have become choked up, and no 'longer bring a full supply of water.'

The foregoing are extracts from official reports of a very late date. The following is from one written in December 1837, by an officer who had then been for nine years employed on works of irrigation:

'I have not the least doubt that the expenditure has been totally inadequate. I judge, first from the innumerable instances of works in a defective state, which have come under my own observation. So generally, indeed, have I found the works in a defective state, that I believe I may say that nearly all the tanks in the country, and nearly all the channels also, excepting those of Tanjore, and the very large ones of other districts, water less land than they once did, many only one-fourth, and very great numbers from half to three quarters; and the actual revenue derived from several districts some years ago compared with the present, fully supports me in this opinion. By the statement above given, it appears that the Munjay (irrigation) revenue of North Arcot is 3 lacs (30,000l.) below what it was ten years ago, out of 15 lacs; in South Arcot 2 lacs out of 12; and in Tinnevelly lac out of 113. But the falling off in the Munjay revenue has, I believe, been going on for a long series of years. . . . . . This question arises,-Is this deficiency owing to the deficient state of the public works, or to other causes? To this I can only reply, that from what I have seen, I have no doubt it is owing to that cause; and I believe that it will be generally allowed to be so by the revenue officers and engineers who have been employed in the irrigated districts.'.

There can be no doubt that the works of irrigation are not generally in a good state of repair; but it is equally certain that