INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

MITIGATIVE MEASURES. 215
canal, par excellence, of Upper India; yet with
all the immense expenditure upon it, it only
covers one quarter of the area of the Doab. Its
financial results, and the experience gained by
its introduction, and that of other canals, may be
realised by perusing the following extracts from
an official document of late date: "Before concluding,
however, we wish to record one remark
as regards the profits of irrigation works. That
is, that in no case, even the most favourable,
can it be expected that the income realised
will pay immediately interest on the capital
spent. In every case there must be a period
of growth, during which charges for interest
and 'capital will accumulate against the work.
\Vhen water is scarce, and irrigation well understood
by the people, the period may be short;
w here, on the other ha.nd, irrigation is new to
the people, and water comparatively plentiful,
the period will be long. The Ganges Canal,
which, on the average of the last five years,
has paid over five per cent on its capital, was
twelve years before it began to realise so much
as four per cent. The Orissa works, which, had
they been constructed sooner, might have saved