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Fig. 46. Map—Canals.

Lower Jhelam Canal.—The Lower Jhelam Canal, which waters the tract between the Jhelam and Chenáb in the Sháhpur and Jhang districts, is a smaller and less profitable work. The culturable commanded area is about one million acres. The head-works are at Rasúl in the Gujrát district. Irrigation began in 1901. In the four years ending 1911-12 the average area watered was 748,000 acres and the interest earned exceeded 10 p.c.

Triple Project—Upper Jhelam and Upper Chenáb Canals and Lower Bárí Doáb Canal.—The Lower Chenáb Canal takes the whole available supply of the Chenáb river. But it does not command a large area in the Rechna Doáb lying in the west of Gujránwála, in which rain cultivation is very risky and well cultivation is costly. No help can be got from the Ráví, as the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal exhausts its supply. Desirable as the extension of irrigation in the areas mentioned above is, the problem of supplying it might well have seemed insuperable. The bold scheme known as the Triple Project which embraces the construction of the Upper Jhelam, Upper Chenáb, and Lower Bárí Doáb Canals, is based on the belief that the Jhelam river has even in the cold weather water to spare after feeding the Lower Jhelam Canal. The true raison d'être of the Upper Jhelam Canal, whose head-works are at Mangla in Kashmír a little north of the Gujrát district, is to throw a large volume of water into the Chenáb at Khánkí, where the Lower Chenáb Canal takes off, and so set free an equal supply to be taken out of the Chenáb higher up at Merála in Siálkot, where are the head-works of the Upper Chenáb Canal. But the Upper Jhelam Canal will also water annually some 345,000 acres in Gujrát and Sháhpur. The Upper Chenáb Canal will irrigate 648,000 acres mostly in Gujránwála, and will be carried across the Ráví by an aqueduct at Balloke in the south of Lahore. Henceforth the canal is known as the Lower Bárí Doáb, which will water 882,000 acres, mostly owned by the State, in the Montgomery and Multán districts. On the other two canals the area of Government land is not large. The Triple Project is approaching completion, and irrigation from the Upper Chenáb Canal has begun. The engineering difficulties have been great, and the forecast does not promise such large gains as even the Lower Jhelam Canal. But a return of 7½ p.c. is expected.

Monsoon or Inundation Canals.—The numerous monsoon or inundation canals, which take off from the Indus, Jhelam, Chenáb, Ráví, and Sutlej, though individually petty works, perform an important office in the thirsty south-western districts. By their aid a kharíf crop can be raised without working the wells in the hot weather, and with luck the fallow can be well soaked in autumn, and put under wheat and other spring crops. For the maturing of these crops a prudent cultivator should not trust to the scanty cold weather rainfall, but should irrigate them from a well. The Sidhnai has a weir, but may be included in this class, for there is no assured supply at its head in the Ráví in the winter. In 1910-11 the inundation canals managed by the State watered 1,800,000 acres. There are a number of private canals in Ferozepore, Sháhpur, and the hill district of Kángra. In Ferozepore the district authorities take a share in the management.

Colonization of Canal Lands.—The colonization of huge areas of State lands has been an important part of new canal schemes in the west of the Panjáb. When the Lower Chenáb Canal was started the population of the vast Bár tract which it commands consisted of a few nomad cattle owners and cattle thieves. It was a point of honour to combine the two professions. Large bodies of colonists were brought from the crowded districts of the central Panjáb. The allotments to peasants usually consisted of 55 acres, a big holding for a man who possibly owned only four or five acres in his native district. There were larger allotments known as yeoman and capitalist grants, but the peasants are the only class who have turned out quite satisfactory farmers. Colonization began in 1892 and was practically complete by 1904, when over 1,800,000 acres had been allotted. To save the peasants from the evils which an unrestricted right of transfer was then bringing on the heads of many small farmers in the Panjáb it was decided only to give them permanent inalienable tenant right. The Panjáb Alienation of Land Act, No. XIII of 1900, has supplied a remedy generally applicable, and the peasant grantees are now being allowed to acquire ownership on very easy terms. The greater part of the colony is in the new Lyallpur district, which had in 1911 a population of 857,511 souls.

On the Lower Jhelam Canal the area of colonized land exceeds 400,000 acres. A feature of colonization on that canal is that half the area is held on condition of keeping up one or more brood mares, the object being to secure a good class of remounts. Succession to these grants is governed by primogeniture. On the Lower Bárí Doáb Canal a very large area is now being colonized.

Canals of the N.W.F. Province.—Hemmed in as the N.W.F. Province is between the Indus and the Hills, its canals are insignificant as compared with the great irrigation works of the Panjáb. The only ones of any importance are in the Pesháwar Valley. These draw their supplies from the Kábul, Bára, and Swát rivers, but the works supplied by the first two streams only command small areas. The Lower Swát Canal was begun in 1876, but the tribesmen were hostile and the diggers had to sleep in fortified enclosures. The work was not opened till 1885. A reef in the river has made it possible to dispense with a permanent weir. The country is not an ideal one for irrigation, being much cut up by ravines. But a large area has been brought under command, and the irrigation has more than once exceeded 170,000 acres. In 1911-12 it was 157,650 acres, and the interest earned was 9¾ p.c. The Upper Swát Canal, which was opened in April 1914, was a more ambitious project, involving the tunnelling at the Málakand of 11,000 feet of solid rock. The commanded area is nearly 450,000 acres, including 40,000 beyond our administrative frontier. The estimated cost is Rs. 18,240,000 or over £1,200,000 and the annual irrigation expected is 381,562 acres.