On the Sirhind Canal, on which the demand fluctuates greatly with the character of the season, the area was twice the normal. The three canals of the Triple Project will, when fully developed, add 1,871,000 acres to the irrigated area of the Panjáb, and the Upper Swát Canal will increase that of the N.W.F. Province by 381,000 acres. The canals will therefore in a year of drought be able to water over ten millions of acres without taking account of possible extensions if a second canal should be drawn from the Sutlej. The money spent from imperial funds on Panjáb canals has exceeded twelve millions sterling, and no money has ever been better spent. In, when the area irrigated was a good deal less than in, the value of the crops raised by the use of canal water was estimated at about 207 millions of rupees or nearly £14,000,000. It is only possible to note very briefly the steps by which this remarkable result has been achieved.

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Fig. 45. Map—Older Canals.

Western Jamna Canal.—Soon after the assumption of authority at Delhi in 1803 the question of the old Canal from the Jamna was taken up. The Delhi Branch was reopened in 1819, and the Hánsí Branch six years later. In the famine year nearly 400,000 acres were irrigated. For more than half a century that figure represented the irrigating capacity of the canal. The English engineers in the main retained the faulty Moghal alignment, and waterlogging of the worst description developed. The effect on the health of the people was appalling. After long delay the canal was remodelled. The result has been most satisfactory in every way. In the last decade of the nineteenth century the Sirsa Branch and the Nardak Distributary were added, to carry water to parts of the Karnál and Hissár districts where any failure of the monsoon resulted in widespread loss of crops. If a scheme to increase the supply can be carried out, further extension in tracts now very liable to famine will become possible. In the six years ending the interest earned exceeded 8 p.c.

Upper Bárí Doáb Canal.—The headworks of the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal are above Mádhopur near the point where the Ráví leaves the hills. The work was started soon after annexation, but only finished in 1859. Irrigation has grown from 90,000 acres in to 533,000 in, 861,000 in 1900-1, and 1,157,000 in. The later history of the canal consists mainly of great extensions in the arid Lahore district, and the irrigation there is now three-fifths of the whole. In parts of Amritsar, and markedly near the city, waterlogging has become a grave evil, but remedial measures have now been undertaken. The interest earned on the capital expenditure in the six years ending averaged 11½ p.c.

Sirhind Canal.—A quarter of a century passed after the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal began working before the water of the Sutlej was used for irrigation. The Sirhind Canal weir is at Rupar where the river emerges from the Siwáliks. Patiála, Jínd, and Nábha contributed to the cost, and own three of the five branches. But the two British branches are entitled to nearly two-thirds of the water, which is utilized in the Ludhiána and Ferozepore districts and in the Farídkot State. The soil of the tract commanded is for the most part a light sandy loam, and in years of good rainfall it repays dry cultivation. The result is that the area watered fluctuates largely. But in the six years ending the interest earned averaged 7 p.c., and the power of expansion in a bad year is a great boon to the peasantry.

Canal extensions in Western Panjáb.—In the last quarter of a century the chief task of the Canal Department in the Panjáb has been the extension of irrigation to the Rechna and Jech Doábs and the lower part of the Bárí Doáb. All three contained large areas of waste belonging to the State, mostly good soil, but incapable of cultivation owing to the scanty rainfall. Colonization has therefore been an important part of all the later canal projects. The operations have embraced the excavation of five canals.

Lower Chenáb Canal.—The Lower Chenáb Canal is one of the greatest irrigation works in the world, the area commanded being 3-1/3 million acres, the average discharge four or five times that of the Thames at Teddington, and the average irrigated area 2¼ million acres. There are three main branches, the Rakh, the Jhang, and the Gugera. The supply is secured by a great weir built across the Chenáb river at Khánkí in the Gujránwála district, and the irrigation is chiefly in the Gujránwála, Lyallpur, and Jhang districts. In the four years ending the average interest earned was 28 p.c., and in future the rate should rarely fall below 30 p.c. The capital expenditure has been a little over £2,000,000. The interest charges were cleared about five years after the starting of irrigation, and the capital has already been repaid to the State twice over.