Page:Arthur Cotton - The Madras Famine - 1898.djvu/31

 “bigoted of the old ryots are now quarrelling and fighting for the water. The old prejudice is entirely broken down. And as a Kurnum expressed it, they, the ryots, have come to their senses about the water. The sight of the country commanded by the Canal is truly refreshing. In one village above Canalla, I rode through tall cholum fields for a mile or two. There, more than three square miles of land were saved from utter drought, and about 300 acres of rice were just ripening. It is very sad to compare this with the rest of the district, where utter failure has occurred, and I am sorry to say cholera is rapidly increasing. How we wish the Illustrated News could give us two of its admirable views,—first of the desert and then of the irrigated land, often seen side by side, misery and plenty, starvation and comfort.” Again; “all the crops are reported in good condition, both dry and wet. The former sown under the Canal, are acknowledged by the ryots themselves, to be in as fine and healthy condition as any crops that ever were sown. Of the thirteen Government tanks, commanded by the Canal, five were filled before the end of the month, and the remainder will be filled before the middle of next.”

For December the Chief Engineer reports in January, 1877; “The result of my calculation is “enough to feed the whole district of Kurnool for two months, and probably the straw will be enough to maintain all the cattle that are not yet perished in the villages under the Canal; in this calculation vegetables are not reckoned as being any substitute for food grain, whereas they do often save grain; e. g. sweet potatoes, brinjals, pumpkins, &c. This grain at present prices is worth £700,000; and if the value of vegetables, cotton and straw be added, the actual value of the crop created by the Canal, cannot be more nearly estimated than at a million sterling. But its value in helping the district to tide over the critical month of May, and in supplying village wells with good water, can only be poorly represented by such an estimate. The actual saving to government by the provision in the least accessible parts of the district, of such a food supply, which would otherwise have had to be bought, is about £500,000. The government are now feeding at imperial expense, a third of the population of the Kurnool district. This could scarcely have happened, had the ryots not sacrificed the whole of the first crop, which the Canal might have matured by irrigating their fields and filling their tanks. This infatuation fortunately did not extend to the second crop, about a quarter of which will have been reared under the already falling water supply of the Toombudra.”

Again; “it is probable that the ryots under the Canal, will save most of their cattle, and thus be able to resume their work on the first appeaarnceappearance [sic] of rain. Elsewhere in the district it is probable that