The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1894-11-22
Can Egyps AnsxyerY

Inc Egyptian peasant Is NJ once by ln-
stinct farmer and irrigation expert" SAYS
recent writer upon the subject of cotton
raising in the land OF the Ptolemies As
the Pharaobs experimental with irrigation
ages ago, it follows as natural conse-
quence that decade upon decade, genera
ton upon generation, must have instilled
into the minds of successive children and
grandchildren of the servants Of the
greatest rulers of the country famous Tor
being the home OF that mighty river, the
Nile, il for no other reason, some inner
ent knowledge OF question but yet 10 its
infancy in the newer territory about to be
reclaimed in arid America. Two thou
sand years before Christ these Egyptians
builded great canals and artificial lakes
Tor water storage-and, as they preserve
their dead, they constructed these canals
with such care AID nicely and such dura-
billy that the remains of many oil them
are yet to be seen. Europe irrigates
much OF her southern territory, and Great
Britain is not far behind the continent.
Ancient Romans introduced the system
and the progressive Europeans quickly
recognized the efficacy in the cultivation
OF crops grown even upon soil moistened
by rains.
Yet with all its antiquity, irrigation is
not problem solved, riddle unraveled
And, while the Egyptian peasant may be
by instinct a farmer and irrigation ex-
pert, he has so far failed to impart
enough OF his hereditary and subjective
knowledge to his brothers of the newer
world to enable them to consider them
selves fully capable of coping with the
many features of the science And THE
HERALD much doubts the ability of even
the Egyptian peasant to explain one or
two results of irrigation or TO present pos.
tive evidence that cure has been found
for at least one great i'll suffered by al!
lands whose surfaces are cut by long lines
OF canals flowing water for their reclama-
ton.
Here in some sections OF Yakima county
the intelligent irrigator finds that his land
has tendency to run to alkali, year hv
year, little by little, almost imperceptibiy
yet none the less surely. Can the Egypt
ians tell us how to stop it? With us the
study of the whole system is new; we
haven't been irrigators for centuries-yet
We find ourselves confronted at the outset
with question which must ultimately
be answered. and we feel it should be
answered now.
How did ancient Egypt prevent sub
irrigation and burned up soil? What OBJ
stacle did she put in the way OF malaria
common assailant of the dweller in irr-
gated sections? And what il Yakima
proposing to do with these conditions.
Mr.. West, the representative of the
Irrigation Age--a paper with a mission
which it nobly fils--a man of large ex-
perience and who has given deep study
to these questions, recently informed TIE
HERALD that there was but one solution,
in his opinion, of the problem and that
WAS drainage Mr.. West said that the
irrigated west was now cudgeling its
brains in the endeavor to get water upon
its arid lands; but that before many
years it would spend more time in trying
to get that acquired water Off And he
feels that drains may well be inaugurated
with the bitches themselves, rather than
be installed many years later, after some
evil has resulted
Under drainage and overhead irrigating
dtches-ihat 0eems to be the remedy for
malaria and for alkali. Did Egypt ever
try it, TnE HERALD can find no record
OF it,