OCR Text |
Show BIG CROP OF BRITISH INDIA Over 223,000,000 Acres Under Cultivation Cultiva-tion 42,000,000 Acres Now Under Irrigation. The department of agriculture has issued a report on the crops of British Brit-ish India for April, 1912, which says, in brief: "British India, with a population of over 300,000,000 people and ,a. total area of 1,133, 075, 182 acres, or about three-fifths of the land area of continental conti-nental United States, has an - actual surveyed area-upon which taxation is based of 624,000,000 acres. Of 3S3,-000,000 3S3,-000,000 acres available for cultivation, 223,000,000 acres are actually cropped. Of the , area cultivated, nearly 42,000,-000 42,000,-000 acres are now under irrigation, a very important factor in agriculture in British India, as the failure of the monsoons in certain years has been the cause of great famines. "Of the 22:'., 000. 000 acres under cultivation, cul-tivation, 41,500.000, or nearly 20 per cent., are irrigated.. In the five-year period from 1905-6 to 1909-10 the area under irrigation increased from 35,-000,000 35,-000,000 to over 41,000,000 acres, an increase in-crease of 17 per cent. Of this area over one-third is irrigated from government gov-ernment canals, the next largest source being from driven wells. Punjab. Pun-jab. Madras, Agra, Bengal, Sind and Oudh are the principal provinces which have extensive irrigation systems." |