CHAPTER IX.
Irrigation.
Any one who has travelled through Hyderabad State in April and May will realize that irrigation is of supreme importance in the Dominions. Fierce, hot winds tear then across the plains, drying up the water and baking the land. People hide indoors, and animals, with heads hanging down, look in vain for a green leaf or a blade of grass. The coming monsoon is the only topic of conversation, and the blue-grey sky is anxiously scanned for a cloud, if "no bigger than a man's hand." The jowari fields that delight tourists in the cold weather, and have been compared by Americans with the maize prairies of South America, have vanished, and the parched earth fills the sceptic with fears of drought and famine.
In the Telingana water is stored in tanks. In the Marathwara wells are relied upon for water. Famines from time to time occur, and since 1876, government relief works have, during periods of scarcity, been
