embanked where water is preserved not only for the usual domestic purposes, but to keep alive the crops and preserve them from drought, and the advantageous influence of those must be very large. When one compares the areas that have already been irrigated by these works with the millions of acres that are said yet to be left, I think one should bear in mind that irrigation works are valuable not merely for the actual quantity of crops which they are instrumental in growing, but also that those additional crops afford a margin or reserve for future times of scarcity.

I quite agree with what Mr. Buckley said-in fact, it is a commonplace now I think that so far as we know there was never yet a time when there was not food enough in India to actually feed the people; but the difficulty has been that of communication or transport. That was the difficulty, as we have heard in Orissa, and the difficulty in the great Behar famine in 1873. In the year 1897-98, the time Mr. Buckley was speaking of just now, we passed through a time of as great scarcity as that of 1873; but everything went comparatively smoothly. Unfortunately, as Mr. Buckley said, the threshing floors were empty and the people thin; but still, somehow or other, the food got there, the difference being that railways now permeate that country, which in 1873 was not the case. So that what the Government had to do was to find the money. The traders found the means of transport, and the Government was spared the great labour and anxiety of providing the food. That same office was, to some extent, but to a much less extent, of course, performed by the canals and railways.

The SECRETARY.-I have to read a note of apology from Sir Colin Scott Moncrief, who was expected to be here this evening and whom we should have welcomed to speak on Mr. Odling's paper: "I am very sorry to have to tell you that I cannot come to Mr. Odling's lecture to-morrow. I had fully counted on doing so; but an intimate friend has suddenly died and I must attend her funeral to-morrow at Hitchin at 3 o'clock."

On the part of the Council and myself I may express our obligations to Mr. Odling for undertaking to prepare this paper for the Institute. [Applause.] I knew when I asked him to do so that he was just the man to do it well, and I think you will all agree with me that he has fulfilled our highest expectations.

He has told us, and so have Mr. Buckley and Sir Charles Stevens,

a great many details about irrigation works, much of which is new, I have no doubt, to most of us; but perhaps I might be allowed, sir, to refer for a moment to the physical conditions which have rendered irrigation in India, as well as in other countries, possible or feasible.

Now, you cannot have irrigation without abundance of water from rain. Where does the rainfall of India come from? No doubt some of those present are perfectly familiar with these matters, with the great physical arrangements which Providence has made for the supply of water to tropical regions without which they would be waste deserts; and India is a splendid example of the operation of this physical machinery which has been set in motion from the earliest times; in fact, since the present distribution of land and sea came into existence. The water that falls on the surface of India comes, I need hardly say, from the ocean; but the question arises, why does it come at particular seasons constituting monsoons? That may not be so generally known. In these parts we have a rainfall at all times of the year and we are not surprised at it;-though we have been at the amount we have had lately! But why in the case of India, and in the case of the Abyssinian mountains, does the rain fall at certain seasons of the year? It comes about in this way. It is a splendid result of the combined action of the power and influence of the sun's heat and the relative distribution of land and sea. During the spring, when the winter is over, the sun is gradually rising towards a vertical position, and it pours down its rays with irresistible power on the vast area of land exposed to them between the two great arms of the Indian Ocean.

It is remarkable that the sun's rays pass through the air without imparting to the air additional heat at least to any appreciable degree-but their effect is to warm the surface of the land, and in this way the air overspreading its surface. The effect of this is to cause the heated air to rise and so to draw in the winds from the Indian Ocean heavily charged with moisture and moving over the lands to the north-east, and forming great masses of cloud which gather over the Ghauts and along the flanks of the Himalayas. The air becomes oppressive, but relief is found in grand displays of electrical phenomena. The rain falls in torrents accompanied by thunder and lightning, imparting verdure to the parched lands and filling the rivers and pools with much needed supplies of water.

This is the character of the "south-west monsoon," but there are sometimes localities where the rainfall is deficient or absent, and here it is that irrigation is so beneficial. The north-east monsoon which occurs during winter is of less importance, and is owing to the higher temperature of the air over the ocean, which results in a reverse direction for the air over the land.

I may add that the Nile receives its periodic supplies from the Abyssinian highlands, mainly through the Atbara, in consequence of the relative positions of land and sea west of the Indian Ocean being similar to those on the east, and the same effects of the sun's heat arise on both.

Colonel HENDLEY said that Mr. Odling and Sir Charles Stevens had both referred to the unhealthy condition of the rice tracts which were irrigated from the canals, but he would like to ask Mr. Odling whether it was not true that the canals themselves in certain districts had not, at least in the past, been responsible for increased unhealthiness owing to their having produced waterlogging of the soil, and if this was the case, whether steps had not now been taken with success to overcome this evil.

I should also have liked, had there been time, to have asked whether the construction of canals in the more arid regions of India had not materially improved the climate especially by leading to increased rainfall. At page 161 reference is made to the pleasure derived by the canal engineer from his friendly intercourse with the people at his tent door. It is such intercourse that encourages loyalty to the Government, but unfortunately frequent transfers, which are the rule in these days, threaten to destroy it. It would be interesting to know whether the irrigation officers are less often moved than those of other departments. Very few names now become household words amongst the peasantry as was the case in the past, when the man who was left long enough in a district to do something for the people was never forgotten. For example, Colonel Dickson, the father of modern irrigation in Ajmere Merwara in Rajputana, who died about the time of the Mutiny, is still spoken of with regard, and a light is, or was, until recently, kept burning at his tomb-in Bewar.

As an

Mr. Odling has dwelt much upon the magnificent triumphs of engineering which many of the great irrigation works are. outsider I have greatly admired them. Who can but wonder, for

example, at the canal near Rurki, which runs under, over, and through a river, or at the grand waterways in Orissa and the Sone works. It is not a small thing moreover that the sides of the canals are generally covered with fine trees which, besides being most valuable, add greatly to the beauty of the country.

Mr. ODLING.--The canal districts were at one time very unhealthy, but where they have been drained the health of the districts has greatly improved. In some cases the soil is five inches under the water for a great part of the year. I am, however, bound to say that in those districts where there are natural rice lands they are just as unhealthy as those lands that have been artificially fitted for rice irrigation.

I have one other remark to make, and that is that Mr. Buckley has very properly pointed out that the canal system did not originate with the British Government. In fact it took its start in the time of Alexander; but there were large works in the south of India that have been greatly improved by the British Government.

Sir Charles Stevens mentioned the importance of communication. I rather dwelt on it in the paper. The system of railways has been a good deal developed of late years and will continue to be so.

Mr. Buckley also well stated that while the canals will do something for the people, nothing but their own providence will ensure complete protection from famine.

I take the opportunity of thanking the meeting for the great kindness with which they have received my remarks.

NOTE.

The following returns from the Department of Revenue and Agriculture, give the latest results of irrigation in India.—E. H.

From the Department of Revenue and Agriculture at Calcutta the complete Agricultural Statistics of India for 1897-98 to 1901-02 have been received in two volumes-one for British India, and the other for the Native States. The volumes give details relating to provincial and district areas, crops, live stock, implements, the incidence of land revenue assessment, varieties of tenure, and other subjects. The following table is a complication of the figures relating to crop areas in British India in 1900-01 and 1901-02

The area of the Native States in 1901-02 is returned at 53,973,702 acres, of which 4,009,956 acres are entered as under forests, 10,743,854 as cultivable waste, 12,457,436 as not available for cultivation, 14,159,772 as sown with crops, and 5,252,525 as fallow. Of the cultivated area, 1,947,400 acres were irrigated in 1901-2, as compared with 1,740,462 acres in the preceding year. There were 801,283 acres under rice, 611,242 under wheat, 10,962,997 under other grain crops, 57,408 under sugar, 125,157 under coffee, 536,104 under other food crops, 892,243 under oilseeds, 420,991 under cotton, 39,082 under other fibres, 8,062 under indigo, 67,797 under opium, 25,522 under tobacco, and 138,861 fodder crops.