'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎98r] (200/470)

As soon as the Arab saw the excavation complete, and the water flowing
throughout the length of the canal, he considered that the task was complete.
The canals are designed to carry water above the berm and when a full supply is
attained the berms are some 2 feet under water. The banks being incomplete it
was unsafe to put down a supply high enough to reach high ground. On the
Jorjiyah the banks were poor throughout and the shortage of water was more
marked. On the Bani Hasan the difficulty was less, but existed owing to the
narrowness of the old Umm al Ruwaiyah channel through which the canal ran for
part of its course. This was not large enough to hold the full supply and it was
difficult to send enough water to the tail.
In the summer it was found necessary to “ ration ” water to Shamiyah, Hillah
and Hindiyah. The result was the failure of part of the rice crops sown in the area.
As a result of skilled supervision of irrigation no less than 40 square miles of
rich land has been reclaimed from swamps. Half of this area will be available for
cultivation this season and the rest should be ready next year.
4. Agriculture .—It is of interest to recapitulate briefly the history of the
Hindiyah district, since without a knowledge of the past it is difficult correctly to
appraise the present agricultural position of the district.
Between four and five generations back—about 150 years—began a movement
of the tribes from the South into the Hindiyah district, which at that time was
largely swamp. The Shatt al Hillah and another branch of the Euphrates, now
dry, between them carried the discharge of the Euphrates, the Shatt al
Hindiyah existing only in the form of a small canal. There is still alive an old
man near Hillah—said to be 100 to 140 years old—who can remember stepping
across the Hindiyah Canal. This canal gradually scoured and deepened its
channel until it attained its present dimensions and became the mam branch of
the Euphrates. During this process there arrived a period when the bed level of
the Shatt al Hindiyah was sufficiently low to free the district from a considerable
area of swamp, and sufficiently high to provide an ample water supply in average
years. This was the rice period. The yearly deposits of silt constantly renewed
the vigour of the land, and the older men of the district talk of the good old days
when 10 lbs. of seed would under the most favourable conditions produce 2 taghars
(of 4 tons)—a yield of close on 1,000 for 1. About 30 or 40 years ago there began
a period when the deepening of the bed of the river lowered the water to an extent
which rendered cultivation increasingly uncertain and precarious. This process
continued until the completion of the Barrage again diverted a large volume of
water down the Shatt al Hillah, put the greater part of the Hindiyah district out
of cultivation. Eor three years previous to the occupation of Baghdad the agricul
tural position was gloomy in extreme, and a large number of the fallahs Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. dispersed
North, South and East—a few even finding their way into the nearer oases of the
desert. With the opening of the Bani Hasan and Jorjiyah Canals the district
has opened a new volume in its agricultural history. An ample water supply is
now assured and the Shaikhs and Sarkals are looking forward to a future which is
altogether rosy.
One effect of the new order of things is that the flood water is no longer allowed
to spread its silt over the land, rice can no longer be cultivated as before, and the
staple crop of the district is barley and wheat. In the year an area of between
31,000 and 32,000 acres was brought under barley and wheat, the proportion being
roughly 10 of barley to one of wheat. The area of summer crops was considerably
less, rather over 2,000 acres each of white and red rice and, approximately, an equal
area of other combined summer crops : dukhn, mash, lubiyah, sesame, idhrah,
safrah, idhrah baidhah, tobacco and vegetables, with one or two fields of cotton.
Note .—The following is the local account of the origin of the name Hindiyah
as applied to the district.
One hundred and thirty two years ago an Indian dug a canal from near the
present head of the Shatt al Hillah to supply Najaf with water. This canal was
known as the Hunaidiyah Canal, after its author—the name was shortened to
Hindiyah and gave its name to the district.
The original canal still exists in part of its length, and is being re-opened by
the Irrigation Department to supply water to the interior of Kifl sink bah.
Willcocks states that the Hindiyah branch of the Euphrates existed in the
time of Alexander the Great, but it might well have disappeared, as other branches
of the Euphrates are known to have done. There seems no reason to doubt the