A minor distributary has been defined (CHAPTER II., Art. 3) as being one discharging not more than 40 c. ft. per second, but the term has come to be used to designate a branch of a major distributary, and in that sense it will be used in this article. When the shape of the area commanded by a distributary is such that watercourses exceeding 2 miles in length would otherwise be required, one or more minors are often added. Frequently it is a question whether to let some of the watercourses be more than two miles long, or to construct a minor and thus shorten the watercourses to perhaps only one mile. Which method is best has not been definitely settled. It is known that the loss of water in watercourses is heavy, but if a minor is added the loss in it has to be considered. The loss must be high in any channel in which the ratio of wet border to sectional area is small. The minor also costs money in construction and in maintenance. On the whole the matter, as far as concerns cost and loss of water, is, perhaps, almost evenly balanced, but as regards distribution of the supply a system without minors is preferable. The off-take of a minor is generally far from the canal, i.e., in a more or less out-of-the-way place, and it is impossible to see that the regulation is properly carried out. Irregularities and corruption are sure to arise. Even if the supply is fairly distributed as between the minor and the distributary it is almost certain that the regulator, if a double one, will be manipulated for the illegal benefit of outlets in the distributary upstream of the bifurcation. There are sure to be some such outlets not very far distant. In any case each minor adds one, if not two, to the already very large number of gauges which have to be entered daily in the sub-divisional officer’s register (CHAPTER III., Art. 3), and adds also to the mileage of channel to be inspected and maintained. These considerations should, in many cases, though of course not in all, turn the scale against the construction of a minor. At one time it became usual to construct minors even when watercourses more than two miles long would not otherwise have resulted. This custom was condemned some years ago, and is not likely to be re-established. Most of the difficulties just mentioned can, in the case of a minor which is not too large, either absolutely or relatively to the main distributary downstream of the off-take, be got over by making the minor head like a watercourse outlet, building it up to the proper size, removing the regulating apparatus and abolishing the reading of the gauge, but in this case the minor is not likely to be bigger than a large watercourse. Such minors should not be constructed, and any existing ones should, after the head has been treated as above, be made over to the people and considered as watercourses.