'The chief modes of irrigation are as follow:-Where the dip is great, a bucket is slung at one end of a long bamboo, and the other end is weighted, generally with a lump of stiff clay. This machine is dipped and worked by a single man. For a small lift, the dongá or hollowed-out palm-tree is used. The smaller end is fixed on a pivot between two posts, on a level with the channel into which the water is to be poured, the larger end being dipped into the water in the reservoir below. To this log is attached from above a long bamboo, weighted with clay at the further end, in order to counterbalance the water in the dip-end of the dongá. This engine can be worked by one man. The siuni, or small bamboo and reed basket, is also used for the same purpose. It is made of a very flat shape, and is slung by four strings. Two men, one on either side of the water-cut from the reservoir, take a string in each hand, and by alternately lowering and raising their bodies, swing up the water very expeditiously into the khets or fields above.' No estimate can be given of the cost of irrigating a bighá of rice or sugar-cane land; but the actual outlay of money is very small.

FALLOW LAND.-Land which has borne exhausting crops is occasionally allowed to lie fallow for one year, and sometimes for two years. The rotation of crops on scientific principles is not known or practised, the same fields being commonly laid down in the same crops for each successive year.

NATURAL CALAMITIES: BLIGHTS.-The District of Murshidábád is occasionally subject to blights, but never to such an extent as to interfere with the general harvest. In the year 1869-70, the whole of the peas crop, and the greater part of the grain crop, in the Jangipur Subdivision were destroyed by a grub. No remedial measures are ever known to have been adopted to avert this form of agricultural calamity.

FLOODS are of common occurrence in the District, especially in the low-lying Bágri or eastern half, which is situated between the Bhagirathi and the Ganges. These calamities are caused, not by excess of local rainfall, but by the rising of the rivers before they enter the District. Owing to the course of the rivers and the general slope of the country, which is on the whole towards the rivers, a rise in their waters can rarely affect the whole of the District; and the floods that occur have seldom been so serious as to cause a universal destruction of the crops. The Ms. Records of the Board of Revenue show that inundations have always been of frequent

occurrence in Murshidábád. The Collector states that the flood of 1823 was the most destructive that is on record. Inundations have also occurred in the years 1834, 1838, 1848, 1856, 1866, and 1870–71; but the flood of 1823 is the only one that may be said to have caused a general destruction of the crops. In 1848 and 1871 a great deal of mischief was done, but the results were only partial.

In illustration of the flood of 1870, when the embankments on the Bhagirathí gave way, and the waters swept down on to the District of Nadiyá, the following description of the consequences in Murshidábád is taken from the Annual Report of the Collector for that year :-'In the Bágri or eastern half of the District, a great portion of the áus rice crop was destroyed by the floods. Much of it was carried away by the water on the bursting of the Bhagirathi embankment at Náltákuri, before it could be placed in a position of safety; and nearly all the áman rice growing in the low lands was submerged and lost. The rice crop, however, in the Rárh or western half of the District was good, and the outturn is stated to have been above the average. The cold-weather crops in many parts of the District were destroyed by a third rise in the rivers. The heavy rain which fell at the beginning of February did a great deal of good to the indigo and mulberry crops, and enabled the lands to be broken up for the spring sowings. Although the crops, especially rice, were deficient, there was plenty of food in the District for those who could procure it. This, however, was by no means an easy matter for many of the suffering cultivators, who were living on mácháns, or bamboo platforms raised above the waters. It was found necessary to appoint a famine relief committee, subscriptions were raised, and the sanction of Government was obtained for the transfer of a sum of Rs. 741. 5. 4 (£74, 25. 8d.), held in deposit on account of subscriptions to the North-Western Provinces Relief Fund, for the purpose of relieving the local distress. Food was sent out where it was wanted for man and beast; and in some cases boats were kept up, for the maintenance of communication with the inhabitants of the submerged villages. There was exhibited during this period a spirit of mutual assistance among the people, owing to which, and to the assistance given by the relief committee, not a single death from starvation occurred. The cattle even did not suffer much during the inundation; but when the waters subsided, many of them died from being then fed with the rank inundation grass. The total amount expended in the relief opera

tions was Rs. 2927. 4. 2 (£292, 14s. 6d.).' It does not seem that these floods caused any extraordinary amount of illness. 'It was anticipated that there would be a large extra mortality; and in consequence, two native doctors were obtained from Government to meet the expected sickness. These men travelled from tháná to tháná, wherever disease was reported to be rife; but their reports showed that they had more chronic cases to deal with than acute cases of emergency.' 'On the whole, considering the exceptional circumstances of the time, and the great distress and misery into which a considerable portion of the inhabitants were plunged, the year was not an unhealthy one, though cholera committed great havoc in some parts of the District.' The price of rice, which is always governed by the prospects of the future as much as by the wants of the present, did not rise so much as might have been anticipated during the actual time of the flood. But the Collector attributes the high range of prices prevailing during 1872-73, which were on an average above those of the previous years, to the serious diminutions in stocks which had been caused by the inundation and its train of consequences. The liability of the Bágri tract of country to flood is thus graphically indicated by the Revenue Surveyor :In the low lands near the Ganges the houses are very temporary A light thatch and lighter walls, unraised, suffice for the wants of the inhabitants, who remove their property, house and all, as soon as the river waters rise high enough to top their chárpáis (native bedsteads). During an inundation they may often be seen lying on their chárpáis with the water well up the legs, either too lazy to move, or trusting to the chance that the water may rise no higher, and save them the trouble of moving at all.'

EMBANKMENTS have existed in this District from ancient times, but they have never been strong enough to confine the flood-waters on extraordinary occasions. The Collector (in 1871) was of opinion that the embankments then existing required to be strengthened, especially those protecting the populous city of Murshidábád; and that more ought to be constructed. The most important protective work in the District is a line of disconnected embankments along the left bank of the Bhagirathí, which extends from Palási (Plassey) bázár, parganá Palási, just within the District of Nadiyá, to Dádmutí, parganá Rokanpur, in this District, a distance altogether of about ninety-three miles. This is a Government embankment, and by Act vi. B.C. of 1873 was vested in Government, and placed

under the charge of the Collector and an Engineer. The Revenue Surveyor in 1857 writes thus concerning the embankments of the District: All the rivers in Murshidábád are liable to overflow their banks during the rains, and would annually flood the country but for the numerous bands (embankments), both Government and zamíndárí, which exist throughout the District. Accidents to these bands often occur; rats are particularly destructive to them; cattle passing and repassing cut them; and the inhabitants neglect to repair the breach in time. The fishermen of the interior bils and kháls have also often the credit of coming in the night and making small cuts in them, to secure a fresh influx of fish from the large rivers to supply their fishing grounds. A very small injury suffices to destroy a band in a single night; the end of a sharp bamboo thrust through is quite enough. But great as is the immediate injury caused by such accidents, they are not entirely unaccompanied by advantage. Fresh and rich deposits are brought in by the inundation waters, fertilizing and raising the soil, and greatly benefiting future crops. The reverse sometimes happens, and a layer of sand may impoverish what was formerly rich soil.'

The early мs. Records of the Board of Revenue are full of letters concerning the embankments of Murshidábád. It was, in theory, the duty of the neighbouring landowners to maintain them in good order, and to repair the breaches which were caused by the floods almost every successive year. As a matter of fact, the Government was habitually compelled by the default of the zamindárs to undertake the work, and was left to recover the expenditure from the parties primarily liable as best it could. On some occasions. money was advanced to the zamindárs, but more commonly a special officer was told off to make the requisite repairs. In the year 1800, the Collector was directed to furnish the Superintendent of Embankments with Rs. 32,788 for the necessary repairs of that year; and was authorized to expose for sale the lands of the zamíndárs, to recover the balance due on this account for the preceding year. In the same year, the Government undertook the construction of a new embankment at Kálígáchhá at its own cost, and gave compensation to the zamíndárs for the land thus acquired. It would appear that this was the first embankment in Bengal constructed with pakká (masonry) sluices, for it was represented as a model on this account to the Collector of Jessor. In those days, as now, extraordinary measures were demanded to protect the exposed

city of Murshidábád. The banks of the Bhagirathí just above the city were the especial charge of the Superintendent of Embankments, who seems to have been in some sense independent of the ordinary executive official, whether called Chief or Collector, and to have been entrusted with the general sanitary supervision of the city. In 1800, the Superintendent of Embankments wrote a letter to the Board, regarding the removal of certain houses; and in the following year he presented a report respecting the filling up of hollows in the city of Murshidábád.

DROUGHTS.-The District of Murshidábád is also subject to droughts, which arise from deficient local rainfall. No safeguards against such a disaster are known to be adopted. The Collector suggested in 1871 that an irrigation canal through the Rárh or western half of the District would be a great boon to that part of the country. The drought of 1865, which was followed by the wide-spread famine of the following year, is the only instance within the memory of the present generation in which the general prosperity of the District has been seriously affected by such a cause. Some account of this occurrence, of the great famine in 1770, and of the recent scarcity of 1874, will be given on a subsequent page.

COMPENSATING INFLUENCES in case of inundation have been distinctly observed to act in Murshidábád District. Mr. Bradbury, C.S., Assistant Magistrate, reported as the result of his personal observation during the disastrous year 1870, that 'while in many low-lying places the crops were almost entirely destroyed by submersion, the peasants in a few places were congratulating themselves that the floods had brought down an abundant supply of water, which enabled them to raise a larger quantity of rice from their lands than they had obtained for several years past.' The Deputy-Collector, also, Bábu Bankim Chandra Chattarji, who went round a considerable portion of the District during the height of the inundation, observed, that 'while on the more exposed lands in the north, the destruction of the growing crops was great, yet the southern part of the District, which is by its situation inaccessible to any overwhelming rush of flood water, bore an unusually fine. harvest.' It is, however, very doubtful whether the gain indicated. above is sufficient to compensate for the loss, unless the fertilizing influence of the rich deposit of silt, often left by the receding waters, be taken into account. In the case of drought, no similar compensating influence has ever been observed.