1 From near the eastern end of Bhera down to the Sulki Escape, 12 miles
2 below Shahpur, a great deal of rather erratic
3 irrigation is done by& Imperial, 1 Provincial
4 and 12 private inundation canals, and there is a small provincial canal in
5 the eastern corner of Khushab, These canals ordinarily begin to flow wher
6 the river rises towards the end of March or in early April, and continue to do
7 so regularly till about the end of June, after that they give a rather irregular
8 supply up tothe end of August or the beginning of Septembor : the water of
9 these canals is heavily charged with silt which is invaluable for the alkaline
10 soil, but it arrives so unpunctually and spasmodically that cultivation is
11 always rather a gamble, and there are reasons for apprehending that this
12 defect. may be intensified by the opening of the vi Jhelum Canal, In 1900
13 it was decided to take time by the forelock and insnre in advance agninst
14 deterioration by constructing a kharif distributary of the Lower Jhelum Canal
15 to irrigate all this tract ; the bed was dug, bridges and bungalows built and
16 trees planted, at a cost of Rs, 8,00,000, but, owing to the private canal owners!
17 shrewd defence of their own vested interests, this interesting and cxpensive
18 embryo is still nascent. Below the Sulki Escape there is some irrigation from
19 the kharif distributaries of the Lower Jhelum Canal, but here the soil is so
20 stiff that the wheat crop is largely dependent on rainfall,
21 (8) Canals.
22 There are a few perennial streams in Khushab whioh give a very valus
23 able but restricted supply to their fortunate
24 possessors, The Jhelum annually enriches a belt
25 about 2 miles broad with its overflow, and the higheat floods reach sometimes
26 10 or 12 miles inland in Bhera and Shahpur, along lines of depression, There
27 was a famous flood in 1893, but-this did much serious damage, and is taxed
28 by the peasants with all sorts of evil bequests, notably the atar thistle and
29 the spread of alkaline salts,
30 In the hills and submontane tract more than 68,000 acres benefit by
31 the water that flows off the slopes and is brought
32 down by torrents, This water is most carefully
33 and skilfully caught up and passed from terrace to terrace by a system of
34 dams, channels and embankments, arranged with minute care and kept up
35 with constant toil, In the level plain beyond the submontane helt, the cule
36 tivated fields get water by means of long -shallow drains which carry the water
37 down from the non-absorbent saline patches.
38 (0) Springs and floods,
39 (a) Porrente,
40 4, Sceing that the canals and floods are alike dependent an the rise
41 of the Jhelum, and that the torrents are dry
42 except after rain onthe hills, and further that
43 there are no less than 130,000 acres which get no water unless direct from
44 heaven, it follows that the rainfall is all important. It is unfortunately both
45 scanty and precarious, as the marginal figures will show; detailed statistics
46 are given inthe Assessment Reports,
47 Rainfall.
48 g | ¢ | ; With graphs to illustrate how the hare
49 ; g ae Pie
50 Raingauge. Locality, | & | @ | z vests, both irrigated and unirrigated,
51 “ . * r 4
52 Sig, & — vary directly as the rainfall. The varie
53 ers ve | nnn ieole ations from village to village are scarces
54 Bhors .. | N.-E riverain... | 80°58 MEL 16:28 ly 1 k bl
55 Bhabpur ... | Central riverain | 25-421 827. 18-93 y tess remarkable than those from
56 Khushab Ditto, | 2434l 750! 1495 year to year, and even j i
57 Bahiwal = |8.-W. riversin | 20-721 4:55! los7 * . ital ter adhe: VNBES ‘As
58 Warbar. icc | Tha! ~ | 8071 a5 ivi7 Year in which the total fall has been -
59 Noushehra.., | Central Hills ... $82 10°8.1 20 &7 onside ;
60 Qikene | Woters Hine | apt Gal gana: © nsiderable, it may have come at the
61 | wrong time and been useless or even
62 ta tl a pe
63 harmful for agriculture. But the avers
64 age figures quoted represent with sufficient accuracy the relative aridity of the
65 different localities,
66 5. The district is crossed by the Sind-Sagar and Jech-Doab branches
67 Ce hcccaee of the North-Western Railway, both of whirh
68 give direct communication with Lahore and
69 Karachi, the former for the Khushab Tahsil, the latter for the canal-irrigated
70 area, There is also branch line linking Bhera with both of these at Malake