, 1876-03-29

1890 wa .
waited and irrigated in Spain, in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries.
Irrigation is extensively nracticed in
the island of Porto Rico. Mauv narts Of
the South Coast depended entirely on the
moisture from irrigation, the water of
which is brought by mason work canals,
acqueducts, and syphons, from long dis
t%ances, and the lands made to produce
crops OF luXuriant cane, where, previous
ly, but a scanty pasture was found, and
this only in the rainy season. Tracts OF
iands' purchased at IS dollars per acre
from parties who had no claim to water
rom a distant river, when purchased bv
the owners OF the %riverine lands, are worth
300 dollars, the usual price for good cane
lands on the South Coast. A friend "a
NINE has a tract of land which nrodncas
nothing but one short crop of grass once a
year. This is separated by a bride hath
from heIds of magnificent canes, which
Were a lew years past equally as worth
less put have sluce been purchased and
put IN cultivation by a planter who has
an abundance Of water. There is an es-
tate IN Poace making regularly from
twelve to fourteen hundred hogsheads Of
sugar. The owner of this property spent
over $4,000 dollars to form tho main irri.
cation canal. In the year previous q SAY,
which was a very dry one, he had made
only torty-two hogsheads.
One OF the greatest works,-Oerbans
the greatest in the West Indies in aid OF
agriculture and which will probably not
only enrich a large rural district, but
likewise sensibIy develop trade in King
ston, are the irrigation works in the Rio
Cobre, above Spanish Town. Not being
a jamaican, or likely ever to be a tax
payer in Jamaica, l look on this under
taking as an amateur, who appreciates a
chgfd ourre; he looks at the whole, and
does not stoop to pick holes in the pieces.
1t it has cost a hundred, and might have
been constructed for fifty or if it should
cost a hundred thousand more before it is
completed, does not concern me. If a
more advantageous spot stares itself to
the eyes OF any Nyophite in such mat
tiers, aud the extra thousands spent were
required, because the present site was Sc
Iected, that does not take from the merits
OF the work as a whole for the purpose
required, as long as it supplies the full
quantity Of water the Rio Cobre is likely
to give.
This work was commenced with the
view Of irrigating the neighbouring un-
productive plains, and there is no doubt
it Will do it. l cannot look on this mag
nificent structure other than as the reali-
zatiou of a great idea. The Janaicans
probably will dissent from me. | have
only practised irrigation on cane lands for
perhaps a quarter Of a century their gen
eraI knowledge and astuteness beats mine.
| cannot toresee when this irrigation may
prove II very paying speculation, but
should it, or should it not, in a financial
point Of view ever become a paying
speculation, is no business of mine. APP
preciating the value of irrigation, and the
wondrous changes it makes in the APP
pearance of country where it is intro
duced, might regret, if l were q tax
payer in Jamaica, that more should have
been spent than was necessary to COM
plete so effective a work, but I do not
think | should begrudge the portion I
might directly, or indirectly, have contri-
buted towards it. The beneficial results
may take a greater or less number of
years to develop but whatever adds to
the extension of agriculture in the imme-
date vicinity Of the capital OF the island,