AGRICULTURE AND REVENUE 263

All these systems have proved to be on the whole
a great financial success. The Punjab canals last year
{1896—q7), taking major and minor works together,
gave a return of 9} per cent. on the outlay. The
returns of the Madras canals for the same year must
also be considered satisfactory, although they were very
unequal. The Godavari, the Kistna, and the Kavari gave
returns respectively of 16},
10}, and 46 per cent, but
many of the minor systems
‘although the minor systems
 as a whole paid better
than the major) sank to
I per cent. or less. One
canal only is classed as an
“unproductive” work, Yet
even of this canal it is stated
that “ the canal has proved
itself a perfect godsend in
this year of drought, and
in the direct and indirect
benefits it has secured to
man and beast within its
influence it has fully justified
 its existence.” Similarly
 in Bombay, the
Dekkan, and Gujrat, where
rrigation is based on the
tank, or storage, system,
although irrigation cannot
as a whole be quoted as a financial success, it proved to be
“indirectly of great use in those districts where the general
scarcity amounted to famine.” In Bombay (as in the
North-West) the cultivator only makes a voluntary demand
for water when he needs it. In Madras certain areas are
always irrigated, and rated accordingly, and the returns are
consequently more even from year to year. But the cultivator
 who only uses canal water in dry seasons naturally
makes his demand precisely at the very time when storage

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