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NEW PLANS FOR IRRIGATION 221
day labourer in Armenia would find it difficult to earn a gross
income of more than 300 roubles a year. It will thus be
seen that the farmers on the new land could easily pay for
irrigation 20 per cent. of their gross profits until the loan
was repaid ; and that amount would be more than sufficient
for the purpose even if, to be quite on the safe side, wc
were to increase the loan from the 9 million roubles, or
one million pounds, originally proposed, to one and a half
million pounds.
It is true that five or six years would elapse before the land
could be cultivated so as to give its full return. The first
two years would be spent in making canals, etc, but once the
water was there it would only be a question of ploughing and
sowing ; already in the third year the land might be expected
to give gross profits of over 8 million roubles, rising in the
fourth year to 10 millions, in the fifth to 12 millions, and in
the sixth and succeeding years to over 13 million roubles.
This shows that the whole plan would be very profitable,
and that the yield of the newly cultivated land ought easily
to cover the loan in the suggested fifteen years.
Obviously, if wc could secure the money to begin upon
these undertakings without delay, wc should be able to
transfer to Armenia a large number of refugees who were
more or less unemployed in Greece and Constantinople, and
to give them productive work in draining the land and con
structing the canals. If wc could utilize as many as four
thousand refugees in this way, they and their families would
constitute a substantial proportion of the people wc specially
wished to remove.
Clearly, too, the cultivation by up-to-date methods of this
new land, thus largely increasing the area of irrigated country,
would be ofgreat importance for the development of Armenia ;
it would serve as a valuable encouragement, foster new activity
and enterprise, open the way for further cultivation, help to
start new industries which would provide work for new
people, and be a long step in the direction of building up the
" national home " that the Western Powers had so often
promised, and in fact pledged themselves to give to the
Armenians. By developing this fertile land it might be
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