Memphis Daily Appeal

Irrigation In India
The canals in India recommended by the Government engineers, it is stated, will cost $145,000,000. The works have already been commenced in different places, but the great want is civil engineers, who can plan and dig canals, build dams, tanks and reservoirs, construct embankments and improve river channels. The English journals are therefore recommending the civil engineers of Great Britain, who are complaining of lack of employment, to proceed to India. The aqueducts to be constructed will supply an immense area with water. In Central India, there are nearly 124,000,000 acres to be irrigated; in Hindostan, 1,500,000; and in the Mysore district the old native structures are to be disinterred with a view to their restoration to use; the flood canals in Sindh are to be converted into perennial streams: a tank to cost $450,000 is among the works now going on in the Deccan: two canals leading to Calcutta are to be made—one from the coal mines of Raneegunge, the other from the Ganges at Rajmahal; another, from the Jumna, near Delhi, will water the Muttra and Agra districts: and the Sutlej canal, first projected in 1861, is now to be commenced. In Burmah, embankments are to be made, and an engineering officer has been sent to see what can be done with the Irawadi. Everywhere, indeed, says the Athenaeum, the fertilizing and refreshing element is to be made to flow, and there is work enough for thousands of men for more than a lifetime. A few more generations, and India will cease to be desolated by famine.