Page:Arthur Cotton - The Madras Famine - 1898.djvu/37



It will be well perhaps to remark on some mistakes which are almost universal on this subject. The first is, that if a tract has plenty of rain, there is no necessity for Irrigation.

One plain answer to this is, that the Famine in Orissa occured after a Monsoon of 60 inches. The question is not how much rain falls, but how it falls. In Orissa 30 inches fell in June and July. There was then a pause of six weeks during which the whole crop perished, and the 30 inches that fell in September could not restore it.

One or two floodings in August from Canals would have turned this Famine into a year of great abundance. No quantity of rain will prevent a Famine, if it is not tolerably distributed. The fact is, water from Irrigation is required in almost every part of India even to prevent Famine. But further, there is never a season when at some time or other, additional water would not improve the crop. Again, when we say “Irrigation," we always mean the complete regulation of the water, that is including draining; and so there is never a season when there is not at some moment excess of rain, which requires to be carried off by a system of drains.

It is this regulation of the water that is needed, and which so abundantly repays the cost of works. God gives us the rain, but as in everything else, he leaves something for us to do, which if we are too indolent to do, we must suffer for it.

The second is that water is water, but this is also a great mistake; there are three kinds of water in agriculture. That from rain, water that has been stored in tanks, and water led direct from the rivers to the fields. The first has been filtered, and does little more than afford moisture; the second has deposited most of its rich contents which have been held in suspension, though it conveys to the fields what was in solution; but the third comes to the land loaded with everything that the plant can want. With this, the land is perfectly renewed. Lands that have been watered for hundreds of years from rivers, continue to afford white crops without diminution, though without manure. The district of Tanjore which has lands in it that were watered from the Grand Annicut in the second century, and ever since, continues as fertile as ever. No application of well or rain water, can make up for the want of river water. Thus the Midnapoor ryots begin to understand this, so that after a fall of rain they empty their fields as quickly as they can, and fill them again from the Canals.

A third is, that Irrigation as a rule produces fever. One answer to this is, that I have lived all my life in the midst of Irrigation, and never encountered a single instance of fever produced by Irrigation either in my own case or that of others. A few years ago there was fever in Godavery, but the report of the Medical Officer was that the same fever was spread all over the neighbouring district, and was not produced by the Irrigation. I don’t however deny that there have been localities and