When River and Canal Engineering was written it was decided to omit Irrigation works and to deal with them separately because the subject interests chiefly specialists.

The present book deals with the principles which govern the design and management of Irrigation works, and it discusses the Canals of Northern India—the largest and best in the world—in detail.

Some years ago a number of rules for designing distributaries were framed, at the request of the Punjab Government, by the late Colonel S. L. Jacob, C.I.E., R.E., and comments on these rules were obtained from many experienced engineers and recorded. The author has had the advantage of reading all these opinions. Generally the weight of opinion on any point agrees with what most experienced engineers would suggest, and direct conflicts of opinion scarcely occur. Important papers have been printed by the Punjab Irrigation Branch on Losses of Water and the Design of Distributaries, on the great Triple Canal Project, on Gibb’s Module, on Kennedy’s Gauge Outlet, and on the Lining of Watercourses. These papers are not always accessible to engineers, and the chief points of interest in them are not, in most cases, discernible at a glance. Such points have been extracted and are given in this book.

E. S. B.

Cheltenham, May 20th, 1913.

IRRIGATION WORKS.