But, fertile as is the soil of India, and propitious to agricultural
industry as is its climate generally, its climate is not always
favourable. It suffers periodically from excess of drought. As a
consequence artificial irrigation has to be resorted to, or much of
this fertile country would oftentimes be a desert. In British India
alone 28,000 miles of irrigation canals are under the control of the
government, 14,000 of which have been constructed by the present
(British) government--works of vast dimensions and the highest
engineering skill. Altogether 28,000,000 acres in British India are
dependent for their necessary supply of moisture upon general
irrigation, and 8,000,000 upon irrigation canals. Were it not for
these irrigation canals, 2,000,000 acres in Scinde (northwestern
India) would be a perpetual desert, for Scinde is almost wholly
rainless. On the other hand, in a great part of India the rainfall is
excessive. Some districts indeed are the wettest on the globe. In
Assam, for example (which is also one of the hottest places in India),
the rainfall is 600 inches yearly, and it has been 650. As a
consequence rivers in India often overflow their banks. Therefore to
protect the country on the lower river reaches from floods the British
government has built over 1500 miles of embankments.