Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/333

 LUO 325 waterings will then be ten rupees per acre. One result of this great expenditure is that when the rains have been deficient during the season, the ponds are nearly or quite empty, and the sugarcane cultivation round them is abandoned, the ground being kept for other purposes. Sugarcane is not planted till April , and consequently the area of each year's crop depends on the preceding rains. Government advances for irrigation under the Land Improvement Act.-Government makes most liberal advances to landowners who are willing to spend them in making wells and tanks for the storage of water. The terms have been recently rendered most tempting; repay- ment of the principal is not required till the expiry of six or twelve years. Meanwhile only six per cent interest is required, and this is a strong temptation to the needy landlord who can only get money at eighteen or twenty-four per cento prime cost. These masonry wells are fairly numerous in the sandy tracts near the Sai where unlined wells will not stand. In these wells water is met with at about 23 feet from the surface, but the springs are not reached till 45 feet or 30 háths (cubit). A well nine feet broad, sufficient for two leather bags to be worked simultaneously, cost Rs. 10 a cubic foot, or Rs. 300 ; from this four inferior bullocks and three men will raise in a day's work only enough water for six or seven biswas. I have verified this from numerous inquiries. Valuing the bullocks' labour at one anna and the men at two annas each, the cost is Re. 1-14-0 per bigha, or Rs. 3 per acre, or 4 days' labour for one watering; this will be nine and a half days or six rupees per acre for the two irrigations necessary in this thirsty soil during most years. It remains to be seen what interest must be added per acre on the For this purpose we must inquire how many bíghas are irrigable from one well. There are four months in the year during which irrigation of the cereals, rabi crops, and sánwán (a crop sown in March) can be carried on—viz., from the 15th November to 15th March, 120 days; one watering costs then five days from oue bucket, and 48 acres can be watered once from a well like this in the season. Interest at eighteen rupees per cent., the ordinary rate, would be Rs. 54 or above one Re. an acre, in which case the entire cost of one irrigation would be four rupces an acre, including three rupees for labour. But instead of one watering in the sandy soil where these wells are made wbeat must have two, and is the better for three; opium must have four or five; sảnwán three. Further, if two buckets are used the well gets dangerously empty in the afternoon, and it must be allowed to fill again, lest the hydrostatic pressure of the wet sand should force in the brick shell. Instead of 45 acres not more than 15 acres* can be watered from each of these wells, and the cost of irrigating an acte of wheat twice will be six rupees for labour and three rupees eight annas for interest, or nine rupees eight annas. • Reveuue Reporter, Vol. V., No. 1V., P. 314. 42