Los Angeles daily herald., 1873-10-03
IRRIGATION.
Lecture by Rev. Or. Patterson.
H.rigniiOA ia the f.asf--.rfac'ir"i NAG.
sesi i0ls 40 the Farsners az hs'uther"
california.
'NVASIE OF W .tIt.R.

sas1ioss "a the Far,lsers al AOuthern
california.
l,'.l,cludcd.
-.It. WASTE oF W ArER.
crossed the Santa Ana river last
week, and thc.r ! was astohlSlicd at
tlyt, W;l ste of water going on. Al the
place. Of crossing the river spft:,'Is over
about 100 wards, and the depth of the
water, over al this suriac', Is from
three to four inches. Calculate the
evaporation from AL this surface, ana
Won will lind there is water enough
wasted from u single miie u supply
me whole, settlement of Riverside for
u year. And this is not all; the bed Of
IN. stream is Of qlict-sand, which is
rendered IL little firm M decreasing, hut,
AT either side, an animal would SINK
down. That sand is absorbing the wa
4 lr. throughout its whole course, ana,
7 from this cause alone, o.le-halt OF the
water above never reaches lie oW. IIlS
~ not solitary instance OF the absorp-
lion Of water by the sandy beds OF the
streams. There are Instances OF Whoie
rivers sinking in the desert the Car
son, for instance.
To come now to simpler matters, are
not the inhabitants OF your own city
daily wasting much water, which you
need to irrigate your beautiful gar
dpns? 4 couple Of days since was ut
a pentleman'S place i'm this city, and
saw him water his trees. All the wa
ttrwhich flowed toward his orchard for
three hours and ahalf, was absorbed in
theditch before drop reached his rees.
II wasevident to my mind, that less
than half the water was ulefllly ap-
piled. The remainder Was lost in
trinsit
Let us now look at all that has been
l)ne toward
IRRIGATION BY n NArIoNs OF THE PAST.
The fist King OF Egypt, 2,7S7 years
before Christ, was the first irrgator OF
whom we have any record. But, with
regard to this king, We are Informed
lat he turned the course Of the river
Nile. See the greatness OF this
work, and the vast Importance Of it to
the welfare OF Egypt. After him, We
have records of Queen Of the Assyrl-
ans; and after this,we have the records
If the Rabylonan mOnarchs, who gov
ned the land called Mesopotamia.
These lands produced one hundred fold.
rhis was the result ,Of thealrient sys-
tenn of irrigation on the plains of Baby
j.. cia@,s.ne bi,shel of corn produced 100
bushels! The Chinese at u very carry
period about six centuries before
shrist--had aneXtensive ~ stem OF ca
nals The great canal OF emma IS wv
miles long, and waters PLAIN or 21,oV
! ,uare nllIes... overthis painis pop
.iation of 2lO, 600, 0D0 of people, depend
.ng on it for their daily food. '.-'
+" AMERICAN lRkIGATIoN. sa
farming to our own land, We find
that irrigation waslpractit eit, long De-
fore tli.. advent Of the whites, by the
Aziecs, and by the early inhabitantsOf OF
Central America. In Colorado, too,
where late exploring parties nave 'iis-
covered the rtiins of cit stone houses,
remains Of the bitches of that ancient
pponle are tu be seen 1T the present
day. lf India from the earliest pe-
Rod we find that irrigation has been
Dracticcd, and We timl that all the great
mOnarhs of India were distinguished
for their laws in this respect. The
British have taken up that work there;
and are carrying it on successfully.
IRRIGATION Ar THE PRESENT TIME.
In regard to irrigation sit is going
Oh attht. present time. il would he I'M
pDssible for me to speak at this time
and refer to all the countries wherein 1t
is the rule. have therefore selected
three, to which | will refer, and the
grst of these is Scotland. 1t is II
II Dor country, but one where the arts of
IAN have supplied the wants of man.
RESULTS IN SCOTLAND. 'H
Near Edinburgh, the PortObello mea-
(l.ws are irrigated by mountain
Arrpm which iscOnducted through the
nty,and carries away with it the refuse
tIreceives in its course. This forms II
kind of liquid manure when used for
irrigation. The meadows thus watered
are cut five times during the year, and
one of these five cuttings has been
known to yield ten tons to the acre.
The annual rent Of these meadows
\ is from e20 To f4U per acre. This
! shows what eau be done by proper
irrigation to land which, as in this
q else,without artificial irrigation would
be worth perhaps "a per acre. You
Yill live, some OF you, to see this city
row unto have 100000 inhabitants;
,ud, when that time shall come, you
IS III IcEuiO hs3piN' S-N'>'''''t'f>'
IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ITALY,
irrigation had been practiceu i'm the
time of Virgil and improvements Were
aterwarl Introduced from time 10
Iille; and the system Of irrigation
h.s been extended over the whole Pc
nlnllla. In the kingdom Of Piedmont,
a. 5GO,U0O acres are irrigated by canals.
the increased value 'bf the iand was
the immediate result and the increased
value of hecrOp Sl5 Per acre per year.
You cam estimate for yourselves the
increase per annlim of So, 10000 to
the wealth Of this kingdom by this
system of Irrigation. On the other
side is the plain of i.ombartly, which
derives its luXuriance from the waters
by which tits irrigated. 1t has ] 400
miles of canals and bitches, and these
irrigatc l,GtO,,OO acres of that fertile
plain. The increased value there Is
ihree to i've dollars per acre, and, II
vsyu will multiply that whOlenunber
by five, you will have the whole In
creased value which this system OF ar
lIiicial irrigation has wrought in that
country.i Italy differs from this coun-
try in this, that it Is more of a garden
ihah farm. There are small patches
on every hand, producing every va
rit]y that the soil ilmay be made to bring
foth, instead of farms. We VIII now
fh'a PROCERp- M, INDIA, ,noea-
wIi,h furliishe, a, most remarkable
,iimple of the use of irrigation. IN
II liza, by far the larger portion OF the