Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/331

LUC 323 of a twenty gallon bag or bucket, and if the spring will supply a demand of that amount all day, then a bigha will be irrigated by eleven mea, or by four bullocks and five men in a day. The cost of this labour will be about Rs. 2-4-0 per acre—that is, when well water is to be had under the most favourable circumstances. Such circumstances are however rare; they imply first class wells, good subsoil and springs, also an industrious popu- lation, which will work all day without relief, and be content with two annas a head. If any of these be wanting, as is the case throughout pro- bably five-sixths of the district, irrigation will cost from Rs. 2-8-0 to Rs.4-0-0 for one watering. The consequence of this is that crops which require two or three waterings for an abundant outturn only get one, and the crop is consequently a scanty one. It may seem strange that human is cheaper than cattle labour, but such is undoubtedly the case. The maiu cause lies in the superior alert- ness of the men ; the bucket when water is at 23 feet will be filled three times in a minute, while once a minute is common enough with cattle. The general use of cattle for irrigation is evidence that the cooly class are so well off that they decline to do bullocks' work. Their occasional use is only evidence that the owner bas plough cattle which would be otherwise unemployed. The majority of the coolies employed at the Lucknow wells are hired men. There are comparatively few pakka or brick; lined wells used for irrigation in the Lucknow district. Their advantage consists in the greater abundance with which the water from the springs percolates in. The best service I have met with from a pakka well was 1 bíghas per day with thirteen men ; the cost was Rs. 2-3-0 per acre for one irrigation. The great majority of the wells in Lucknow and, indeed, in Oudh are worked by human hired labour, although in many cases small farmers aid each other being then called jittas. Cattle can be more profitably em- ployed in carriage along roads than in raising water. There its plenty of employment for the labour which would be displaced if canals were substi- tuted for wells. V great advantage would result here as everywhere else from the embankment of the jhils. About 54 per cent of the total area of the district is covered with water in the shape of shallow ponds or swamps, often not more than three feet deep in the centre. Of the 54 square miles so lost to cultivation at least 30 might be reclaimed; the area of the jhíls would be circumscribed, the water proportionally height- ened and deepened, the effect of evaporation lessened, so that the fertiliz- ing effects of the water would be rendered more available and at a cheaper cost, while the unhealthy stagnation of shallow swamp water would bc lessened, No explanation can possibly account for the universal neglect to adopt such an obvious improvement, particularly when there are thousands of such old works scattered over the country whose age is lost in antiquity, but which are still in working order, and attest how certain and weighty are the advantages to be expected. It is strange that the agricultural improvement, which is most effectual in increasing food supplies, and which