The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-02-27
MARVELS OF IRRIGATION.
HOW THE ouLrIvABLE PORTION OF
EGYPT IS WATERED.
A Country Out Up Into Canais-Primi-
tive Way of Carrying WATERMAN
Americana Scheme

Egypt, says Frank G. Carpenter in the
american Agrieulturist, is the daughter
of the waters, and all of her luxurance
of life she owes to the mighty Nile which
flows through her. Bedded in sand, and
bounded by deserts on either side, she
lives only where the waters of the Nile
touch her, and she stands before the world
us the greatest miracle of irrigation.
Think of region as black as yo, hat,
and as rich as guano, which for ages has
produced its three crops every year with
out fertilization. Let it extend thou.
sand miles long and make it, for nine hun
dred of these miles, be only three to nine
miles wide. Put at the end of this nine-
hundred mile-handle great fan-like
delta, and you have the Egypt of to-day.
On both sides of this fan aud its handle
are the bleakest and most barren of sands.
The soil itself, in no place more than
thirty-five feet deep, rests upon sand,
and this same sand crops out on the east
into the millions of acres of desert, and
on the west into the vast expanse of the
burning Sahara. These two line the sides
of the valley along the thousands of miles
of its course, framing its living green in
white walls of glowing sterilty.
The irrigation of Egypt is now con-
Quoted on scientific basis. The whole
country is cut up into canals, and there
are immense irrigating works in the Del
ia, which, during the foundations of the
Nile, require hundreds of thousands of
men to manage them. l met, during my
visit to Egypt last summer, the manager
of the immense dam which extends across
the Nile below Cairo, and which raises
| its waters into vast canal, through
which they are allow to flow out into
| subordinate canals over the great Delta.
There are some steam-pumps used in
Egyptian irrigation, but by far the
greater part of the country is irrigated
now as it was in the days of the Phar-
aohs. This is by means of the shadoof
and the sakiyeh. All over Egypt YOU
will see men naked to the waist standing
knee-deep in the water with basket
work bucket hung by ropes between
them. With a swinging motion, they
scoop the water from the river into this
bucket, and swing it up to canal on a
higher level, from whence it runs off into
the fields. The water is often drawn
from this canal into a higher canal in the
same way, and thus, by series of planes,
it is conducted so that none is lost. The
sakiyeh is run by donkey or oxen.
There are more than fifty thousand Of
these in Lower Egypt, and it takes two
hundred thousand oxen and one hundred
thousand persons to manage them, and it
is estimated that they irrigate territory
about as large as the State of New Jersey.
They are pumps of the rudest possible
description. A vertical wheel of about
thirty feet in diameter has number of
earthen pots tied to its tire, and it is
moved by horizontal wheel at the top
which fits into it by cogs. The animal
fastened to bar, and with eyes blind
folded, turns this horizontal wheel
around and around as he goes in ring,
and as the vertical wheel rises, it lifts
the water from the well or canal, and
when it passes the perpendicular, throws
it into another canal, whence it is carried
over the fields. These methods
of irrigation are also in use in
Upper Egypt, and the fellahin
or peasants do not care for mod
ern inventions. Ismail Pasha, the last
Khedive, was an advanced farmer, and
he introduced great amount of i'm
proved agricultural machinery, including
many patent iron pumps. The most OF
these are now rusting for want of use,
and the farmers have gone back to the
shadoof and the sakiyeh Alter the water
is taken out of the great canals it is
spread over the fields in little ponds,
and the fiat fields are often divided into
small squares by means of entertainments
of earth one foot in height, which run
around them like fences, and which can
be opened or closed to regulate the
height of the water within them. tn;
rising of the Nile begins in June, and
during the summer much of Egypt is one
vast lake. Itremains SO through Septem
Der, and it subsidies toward the latter
part of October. 1t is at this time That
the water is conducted into this vast net
work of canals and is carefully carried
over the cultivated lands. The crops oil
much of Egypt depend entirely on the
size Of the inundation, and when there is
low Nile, Egypt is afflicted with
famine. Last year the water was very
low, and the peasants and the farmer,
had portion of their taxes RENTED on
this account. The crops were so short
that the salaries of the Government Off
GERS had to be reduced, and the
Khedive and his family received only
ninety-nine per cent. of their usua
allowance. 1t is said that the irrigation Of
the Egypt of the past was better thar
that of to-day, and there is an American
who has scheme which it is though
will release the country from the dangers
of low Nile. This American has dis
covered depression in the desert neal
Cairo, which he says was once the bee
of vast lake, and he shows, by refer
ences to the ancient works upon Egypt
that this was once grand irrigation
reservoir. Herodotus thought it com
pared with the Pyramids as one of thu
wonders of the world, and he says it wa
filled by the Nile when high, and saved
until water famine came, when it wa.
let out upon the land. The Egyptian
Government has taken this matter IL
hand, and though they first laughed al
the Americans scheme, they consider il
to be now feasible one. They have sur
veyed the country leading to the dry
lake, and it is found that canal clever
miles long will fill it. If this is done, ,
vast amount of fertile soil will probably
be added to Egypt. Experience has
shown that this desert will blossom like
the rose if it can be fed with water
and the fresh water canal near Sue.
brought five hundred thousand new acre.
under cultivation. Scientific irrigation
would increase her farming product
ten fold.
Planting Trees Upside Down.
1t is sometimes said that the branche!