The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-11-29
IRRIGATION.

NO matter u what part of the world
investigations are made they all result in
the discovery that irrigation Is very an
Gent art and that it was practiced BY the
former nations of the earth on a most
magnificent scale. Mr.. Rich, whose resi-
dence at the court of BaSdad, with the
powerful protection of the Pasha, Afford
ed him every facility for comprehensive
investigation, describes the whole coun-
Try around the ruins of Babylon, dis
tsnce Of forty-eight miles, as perfectly
fat and unculivated waste, but states
that it is evident from the number of
canals by which it is traversed that it
must have been formerly well cultivated.
u. Jules Oppert has succeeded in making
a series Of minute surveys and in drawing
up Detailed plans of the immense city.
His opinion is, that even the largest cal
eulatiors as to its vast extent are not
exaggerated; and he puts down that extent
al the as tonishing figure of 500 square hlo-
meters, the square hlometer being 1876
square yards This is very nearly
eighteen times the size of Paris. This
enormous area, however, was not all
occupied. It comprised within the walls
huge t.octs of cultivated lands and gar
deas, all of which were irrigated from
the Eulihrates Ninevah, too, under the
interchangeable labors of Layard, has been
shown to have contained network of
rTigating canals, many of them cut out
Of the solid rock.
Scattered over the now deserted por-
tons OF Arabia, Syria, and other portions
OF Asia, are the enduring traces of i'm
mense ystems OF furnishing an artificial
water supply. In the former country, n
one locality the remains of a reservoir
formed by dam no less than two miles
long by 100 feet in height, with its &C
companying vast net work Of bitches,
show to what an extent this work was
carried on.
Many of the magnificent canals in the
Pnnjab system that have now converted
that section of India into luxuriant
garden are the old ruined canals of for
mer dynasties, repaired and enlarged
Many mentions of irrigating canals are
found in the annals of Akbar's reign. As
early as the fourteenth century Feroz
shah had large canal dug to bring
water from the mountains to Hisssr and
Shahsie. Akbar found this canal in
ruins and passed IA canal act, - ordering
It to be repaired and enlarged, so that
'this jungle in which subsistence is OBJ
tanned with thirst, be converted into a
place Of comfort free from all evil" So,
too, it has been found that the most
profitable irrigating canals in India are
those which have been carried along the
beds of the ancient works.
The Moors were great welI-diggers, and
were experts in the irrigating art in all its
forms. So careful were they in maintain
ing the details of their system that
they kept in public Offices bronze models
Of their dams and sluices as guides for re-
pairs and rebuilding They carried theart
into Spain and Sicily, just as Egypt taught
Asyria and Babylon, Carthage and Pho
nicia, and so by gradual degrees to
Greece and Rome The Lombard Kings
following the Roman practice, encour-
aged and extended irrigation in Italy,
and from Lombardy the art extended
to France. The English water meadows
are copies of Roman engineering skill in
and when the Spaniards con-
quered Peru they found the subjects OF
the Incas fertilizing their lands by the
same means that the Moors had taught
them.-SaH Francisco Chronicle.