The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir Part 8

1. Western Jamna 775,450 7-3/4 2. Sirhind 1,609,458 8 3. Upper Bari Doab 1,156,808 11-1/2 4. Lower Chenab 2,334,090 34 5. Lower Jhelam 801,649 10-1/3 B. Monsoon Ca.n.a.ls 1,654,437 Total 8,331,892

_N.W. Frontier Province_

Acres Interest earned %

Lower Swat River 157,650 9-3/4 Two minor Ca.n.a.ls 67,510 Total 225,160

On the Sirhind Ca.n.a.l, on which the demand fluctuates greatly with the character of the season, the area was twice the normal. The three ca.n.a.ls of the Triple Project will, when fully developed, add 1,871,000 acres to the irrigated area of the Panjab, and the Upper Swat Ca.n.a.l will increase that of the N.W.F. Province by 381,000 acres. The ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.l should be drawn from the Sutlej. The money spent from imperial funds on Panjab ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.l 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 45. Map--Older Ca.n.a.ls.]

~Western Jamna Ca.n.a.l.~--Soon after the a.s.sumption of authority at Delhi in 1803 the question of the old Ca.n.a.l from the Jamna was taken up. The Delhi Branch was reopened in 1819, and the Hansi 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 ca.n.a.l. 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 ca.n.a.l 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 Karnal and Hissar 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 Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l.~--The headworks of the Upper Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l are above Madhopur near the point where the Ravi 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 ca.n.a.l consists mainly of great extensions in the arid Lah.o.r.e 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 11-1/2 p.c.

~Sirhind Ca.n.a.l.~--A quarter of a century pa.s.sed after the Upper Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l began working before the water of the Sutlej was used for irrigation. The Sirhind Ca.n.a.l weir is at Rupar where the river emerges from the Siwaliks. Patiala, Jind, and Nabha contributed to the cost, and own three of the five branches. But the two British branches are ent.i.tled to nearly two-thirds of the water, which is utilized in the Ludhiana and Ferozepore districts and in the Faridkot 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.

~Ca.n.a.l extensions in Western Panjab.~--In the last quarter of a century the chief task of the Ca.n.a.l Department in the Panjab has been the extension of irrigation to the Rechna and Jech Doabs and the lower part of the Bari Doab. 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 ca.n.a.l projects. The operations have embraced the excavation of five ca.n.a.ls.

~Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l.~--The Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l 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 2-1/4 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 Chenab river at Khanki in the Gujranwala district, and the irrigation is chiefly in the Gujranwala, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 46. Map--Ca.n.a.ls.]

~Lower Jhelam Ca.n.a.l.~--The Lower Jhelam Ca.n.a.l, which waters the tract between the Jhelam and Chenab in the Shahpur and Jhang districts, is a smaller and less profitable work. The culturable commanded area is about one million acres. The head-works are at Rasul in the Gujrat 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 Chenab Ca.n.a.ls and Lower Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l.~--The Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l takes the whole available supply of the Chenab river. But it does not command a large area in the Rechna Doab lying in the west of Gujranwala, in which rain cultivation is very risky and well cultivation is costly. No help can be got from the Ravi, as the Upper Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l 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 Chenab, and Lower Bari Doab Ca.n.a.ls, is based on the belief that the Jhelam river has even in the cold weather water to spare after feeding the Lower Jhelam Ca.n.a.l. The true _raison d'etre_ of the Upper Jhelam Ca.n.a.l, whose head-works are at Mangla in Kashmir a little north of the Gujrat district, is to throw a large volume of water into the Chenab at Khanki, where the Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l takes off, and so set free an equal supply to be taken out of the Chenab higher up at Merala in Sialkot, where are the head-works of the Upper Chenab Ca.n.a.l. But the Upper Jhelam Ca.n.a.l will also water annually some 345,000 acres in Gujrat and Shahpur.

The Upper Chenab Ca.n.a.l will irrigate 648,000 acres mostly in Gujranwala, and will be carried across the Ravi by an aqueduct at Balloke in the south of Lah.o.r.e. Henceforth the ca.n.a.l is known as the Lower Bari Doab, which will water 882,000 acres, mostly owned by the State, in the Montgomery and Multan districts. On the other two ca.n.a.ls the area of Government land is not large. The Triple Project is approaching completion, and irrigation from the Upper Chenab Ca.n.a.l has begun. The engineering difficulties have been great, and the forecast does not promise such large gains as even the Lower Jhelam Ca.n.a.l. But a return of 7-1/2 p.c. is expected.

~Monsoon or Inundation Ca.n.a.ls.~--The numerous monsoon or inundation ca.n.a.ls, which take off from the Indus, Jhelam, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej, though individually petty works, perform an important office in the thirsty south-western districts. By their aid a _kharif_ 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 cla.s.s, for there is no a.s.sured supply at its head in the Ravi in the winter. In 1910-11 the inundation ca.n.a.ls managed by the State watered 1,800,000 acres. There are a number of private ca.n.a.ls in Ferozepore, Shahpur, and the hill district of Kangra. In Ferozepore the district authorities take a share in the management.

~Colonization of Ca.n.a.l Lands.~--The colonization of huge areas of State lands has been an important part of new ca.n.a.l schemes in the west of the Panjab. When the Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l was started the population of the vast Bar 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 Panjab. 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 cla.s.s 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 Panjab it was decided only to give them permanent inalienable tenant right. The Panjab Alienation of Land Act, No. XIII of 1900, has supplied a remedy generally applicable, and the peasant grantees are now being allowed to acquire owners.h.i.+p 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 Ca.n.a.l the area of colonized land exceeds 400,000 acres. A feature of colonization on that ca.n.a.l is that half the area is held on condition of keeping up one or more brood mares, the object being to secure a good cla.s.s of remounts. Succession to these grants is governed by primogeniture. On the Lower Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l a very large area is now being colonized.

~Ca.n.a.ls of the N.W.F. Province.~--Hemmed in as the N.W.F. Province is between the Indus and the Hills, its ca.n.a.ls are insignificant as compared with the great irrigation works of the Panjab. The only ones of any importance are in the Peshawar Valley. These draw their supplies from the Kabul, Bara, and Swat rivers, but the works supplied by the first two streams only command small areas. The Lower Swat Ca.n.a.l 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 9-3/4 p.c. The Upper Swat Ca.n.a.l, which was opened in April 1914, was a more ambitious project, involving the tunnelling at the Malakand 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

{ Kabul River Ca.n.a.l.

Areas commanded by { L. Swat Ca.n.a.l.

{ U. Swat Ca.n.a.l.

Fig. 47. Map of Ca.n.a.ls of Peshawar district.]

CHAPTER XIV

AGRICULTURE AND CROPS

~Cla.s.sification by Zones.~--In order to give an intelligible account of the huge area embraced by the Panjab, N.W.F. Province, and Kashmir it is necessary to make a division of the area into zones. Cla.s.sification must be on very broad lines based on differences of alt.i.tude, rainfall, and soil, leading to corresponding differences in the cultivation and the crops. For statistical purposes districts must be taken as a whole, though a more accurate cla.s.sification would divide some of them between two zones.

~Cla.s.ses of Cultivation.~--The broadest division of cultivation is into irrigated and unirrigated, the former including well (_chahi_), ca.n.a.l (_nahri_), and _abi_. The last term describes a small amount of land watered from tanks or _jhils_ in the plains and a larger area in the hills irrigated by _kuhls_ or small artificial channels. "Unirrigated"

embraces cultivation dependent on rain (_barani_) or on flooding or percolation from rivers (_sailab_). (See Table II.)

~Harvests.~--There are two harvests, the autumn or _kharif_, and the spring or _rabi_. The autumn crops are mostly sown in June and July and reaped from September to December. Cotton is often sown in March. Cane planted in March and cut in January and February is counted as a _kharif_ crop. The spring crops are sown from the latter part of September to the end of December. They are reaped in March and April.

Roughly in the Panjab three-fifths of the crops belong to the spring harvest. In the N.W.F. Province the proportion is somewhat higher. In Kashmir the autumn crop is by far the more important.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 48. Persian Wheel Well and Ekka.]

~Implements of Husbandry and Wells.~--The implements of husbandry are simple but effective in a land where as a rule there is no advantage in stirring up the soil very deep. With his primitive plough (_hal_) and a wooden clodcrusher (_sohaga_) the peasant can produce a tilth for a crop like cane which it would be hard to match in England. There are two kinds of wells, the _charsa_ or rope and bucket well and the _harat_ or Persian wheel.

~Rotations.~--The commonest rotation in ordinary loam soils is to put in a spring and autumn crop in succession and then let the land lie fallow for a year. Unless a good deal of manure is available this is the course to follow, even in the case of irrigated land. Some poor hard soils are only fit for crops of coa.r.s.e rice sown after the embanked fields have been filled in the monsoon by drainage from surrounding waste. Other lands are cropped only in the autumn because the winter rainfall is very scanty. Flooded lands are often sown only for the spring harvest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 49. A drove of goats--Lah.o.r.e.]

~Cattle, Sheep, and Goats.~--In 1909 there were in the British districts of the Panjab 4-1/4 million bullocks and 625,000 male buffaloes available to draw 2,169,000 ploughs and 288,000 carts, thresh the corn, and work a quarter of a million wells, besides sugar, oil, and flour mills. The cattle of the hills, N.W. Panjab, and riverain tracts are undersized, but in the uplands of the Central Panjab and S.E. districts fine oxen are used. The horned cattle share 18 millions of pasture land, much extremely poor, with 4 million sheep and 5-1/2 million goats.

Hence the enormous area devoted to fodder crops.

~Zones.~--Six zones can be distinguished, but, as no district is wholly confined to the mountain zone, it must for statistical purposes be united to the submontane zone:

(_a_) Mountain above 5000 feet Panjab--Kangra, Simla, Native States in Hills, Ambala, Hoshyarpur.

(_b_) Submontane N.W.F. Province. Hazara, Kashmir--whole

(_c_) North Central Plain Panjab--Gujrat, Sialkot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Malerkotla, Powadh tract in Phulkian States.

(_d_) North-West Area Panjab--Rawalpindi, Jhelam, Attock, Mianwali.

N.W.F.P.--Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu.

(_e_) South-Western Plains Panjab--Gujranwala, Lah.o.r.e, Shahpur, Jhang, Lyallpur, Montgomery, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur.

N.W.F.P.--Dera Ismail Khan.

(_f_) South-Eastern Area Panjab--Karnal, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Hissar, Ferozepore, Faridkot, Jangal tract in Phulkian States, Native States territory adjoining Gurgaon and Rohtak.

~Mountain and Submontane Zones.~--In the Mountain Zone the fields are often very minute, consisting of narrow terraces supported by stone revetments built up the slopes of hills. That anyone should be ready to spend time and labour on such unpromising material is a sign of pressure of population on the soil, which is a marked feature of some hill tracts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 50. A steep bit of hill cultivation, Hazara.]

Below 8000 feet the great crop is maize. Potatoes have been introduced near our hill stations. The chief pulse of the mountain zone is _kulath_ (Dolichos biflorus), eaten by the very poor. Wheat ascends to 8000 or 9000 feet, and at the higher levels is reaped in August. Barley is grown at much greater heights. Buckwheat (_ugal_, _trumba_, _drawi_), amaranth (_chaulai_, _ganhar_, _sariara_), and a tall chenopod (_bathu_) are grown in the mountain zone. Buckwheat is common on poor stony lands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 51. Preparing rice field in the Hills.]