The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-25

l aus NdlcIS OL hdSuIIlT anu
 has, changed all this, and to-day no fine
 wheat crops are to be had in the coun'
 try than those obtained in the Lyall | pohe and other districts on the line o1
 the canal. Encouraged by the splendid
 success of this undertaking, the Pun I Jab government is now engaged ir | working out Jhelum canal, which vii
 lrrigate all the country to the west oi
 the town of that name in the direction | or Multan. Accordingly a large num-
 the famine-stricken inhabitants of the | southwestern Punjab have been moved
 by rail to the north of the province, to be employed on the earthworks of the | proposed canal, which, when finished | will probably add as many acres of | corn-producing soil to the country as has already been done by the Chenab canal.
 But the land which could be irrigated by these canals is all of low level. All
 along the foot of the Hmaaya there
 IS an immense amount of country which
 cannot be touched by ordinary irriga- tion methods, owing to it's lying a a high level. For water to reach such
 land by gravitation, the headworks of
 the canal would have to be far within
 the hills and the resulting works would
 beof so costly character as to be ab-
 solutely prohibitive. But there is an- other method by which such lands could be served with the water they so badly require--a method already very largely employed in the United States, but as yet almost in its infancy elsewhere. fo of IA oIar ,,;, mile, while their course is within the hills, is very great. The volume of wa ter is at all times of the year very great indeed, since these rivers are fed from the eternal snows. Consequently thou sands, millions even, of potential horse power are annually running to waste because no effort is made to harness the rivers, as is done with such success at Niagara and all over the States. There are many thousands of square miles of excellent land in the plains of India which, if they could but be irrigated, would furnish crops of surpassing rich ness. This could be done were some of the power now running to waste in the great Himalayan rivers but utilized There are unmberless places within the
 
 from the land to be irrigated, where turbines could be erected and electrical power obtained which in turn could be transmitted to the pumping station, and thousands of acres could thus be turned from arid wastes to fertile corn lands. In the states the transmission of elec- trical power over distances of fifty to eighty miles is now thought nothing of. But in India, especially along the foot of the Himalaya, it would hardly ever be necessary for the power to be trans mitted more than twenty miles or so.
 Roughly speaking, the situation in the districts close to the hills is some thing like this. There Is water in abundance in the rivers and there is corngrowing land in plenty close by; but the water cannot, under existing be brought to the land, owing to the high level of the latter. If measures were taken to accomplish this the return obtained would be sufficient to pay a handsome dividend on the out lay. There is yet another method, per- fectly well known and in use on many private properties in England where by on q small scale at any rate, much of this high-lying land could be fertil- lzed. With a rapid fall such as is al- ways to be obtained in the districts near the foot of. the hills, there is no reason why the hydraulic ram should not be worked with conspicuous success Then, again, in districts far removed from the Himalayas. such as Rajputa- aa, where water is scarce but the land good, there is every reason to suppose hat artesian wells would be productive of the most gratifying results In France, in the States, and in those parts of the Sahara bordering on Alge- ia, to mention but a few of many places, the use of artesian wells is Iery great, and the results obtained are excellent. But in India the traditional of the people seems to eact on their rulers, and the latter are verse to the trial of methods perfect y well known elsewhere, but which, | imply because they have not been hith- 'rto used in India, sre looked at as- yance by offieialdom. AT who have ,een in this country are only too well | ware that it takes years to get the most obvious and urgent reforms car
 jed through by the government There $ but small hope, therefore, if existing methods of doing work are to continue, / f ever getting the importance of such chemes as the use of some of the mill ions of horse power now running to waste for irrigation purposes recognized " those in authority. Yet if only the overnment could be persuaded to nake trial on a small scale of irriga- 1 ion on high-level lands by means of lectrical energy derived from the riv- IS, there is every reason to suppose that istricts which now have to import corn or, consumption would in very few ears be able to export large quantities. London Standard.
 MIR. RUSSO, THE BANKER.