There are several plans by which, in British India, water is lifted. One of these, from wells, is by means of the mot' or pur,' a flexible leathern bucket containing from 24 to 124 gal lons, which is 'attached by a strong rope to a pulley. In masonry wells in the north of India, from 4 to 20 runs can be worked at one and the same time, and af unbricked or Kach'ha wells more than two runs are seldom worked. The runs—called lao,' from Lana,to bring—are worked by men or women, bullocks, and buffaloes, but generally bullocks. Whatever power may be employed in a garden or field of any size, one person is needed to receive and empty the bucket at the mouth of the well, another to drive the bullocks, and a third to distribute the water. In a small patch of land two persons will suffice. Human labour is the most expensive, but is the quickest. About two standard bighas can in one day be irrigated in the above manner by one set of labourers.
Irrigation is sometimes effected by hand labour, two men raising the water by means of a bamboo or leather bucket or basket, swung from ropes. In the Doab of the Ganges and in Rohilkhand, it • is called beri, lehari, ch'hapa, boka ; in Benares and Oudh, da:uri ; and in Dehli and Bundelkhand, dal, dugla, dulia. In Sind and in the Panjab; the Persian wheel, a series of earthenware bucket on the periphery of the wheel, is hugely used.
In Dehli and the Doab, dal is the name applie( to the basket or bucket used for raising Ovate from a deep well. It is made sometimes of leather but generally of munj (Saccharum munja) or jhal (tamarisk). It is more expensive than the tor irrigation, which consists in merely breaking down the field ridge. Sugar-cane, poppy, and garden crops are irrigated, where possible, from wells only, even when the expense of drawing water from a deep well is fourfold that of shovelling it out of a hollow on the earth's surface ; and practical agri culturists entered rates one-fifth higher on lands irrigated from wells than those watered from jhils or ponds.
Where the natural rains are the sole means of irrigating the lands, only one crop can be raised annually, and even that, in difficult seasons, is unobtained. But with artificial irrigation two
and three crops can be raised,—a monsoon, a cold weather, and a hot-weather crop.
In Farrakhabad, where three crops are obtained, Indian corn sown in June—July, and harvested in August and September, is the first crop. In October —November, potatoes or carrots are planted as a second crop, and taken up in February or March ; and the third crop is tobacco or melons, sown in April, and gathered in May or June.
Cost.—From the commencement of the Godavery delta irrigation system of works up to 1877-78, the sum of Rs. 78,77,781 had been expended. The area irrigated under the anicut was 541,892 acres, in 1876-77, yielding a revenue of Rs. 22,98,423, divided into a water tax of Rs. 15,91,767, and land assessment Rs. 7,06,656. The total ex penditure for the Kistna delta system has been Rs. 48,40,546. This system is intended to irri gate 470,000 acres. Of that extent, 246,000 were irrigated in 1875-76, yielding a revenue of Rs. 10,98,978, viz. water tax Rs. 7,32,756, and land tax Rs. 3,66,222. Out of 321 miles of canal proposed for navigation in this delta, 267 miles had been opened for traffic up to 1877-78.
From the upper parts of the Cauvery river, channels have been conducted through the Trichi nopoly and Tanjore districts, and the portions within the reach of the waters are cultivated like gardens. The great Colerun channel, quite like a great river and about a mile broad, is led off from the Cauvery, aids to form the sacred island of Srirangam, and is exhausted in irrigating the lands to the east. The Cauvery delta irrigation system irrigates 796,968 acres, yielding a revenue of Rs. 33,78,442. Up to the end of 1873-74, the sum of Rs. 13,39,641 had been expended on it by the British Government, which outlay has been estimated to yield a return of per cent. The total expenditure on the Srivai Kuntham anicut in the Madras Presidency up to 1877-78, was Rs. 9,20,510. In Mysore, there are anicuts or dams at Nundur, Sri Ramadwara, and Masee bully, and a great reservoir is to be established at Mauri Conwai.