The Florence tribune., 1899-11-18
Irr!aa.Ion In Peru .
Special correspoudance.l ]


 WASHINGTON, Nov. l3.-Senor Ramon
 Estacia, who is visitor to this country
 from Peru, can talk very interestingly
 about his home under the Equator, tn e land of the Incas and associated with
 Pizarro and his Spanish Conquistadores.
 'sI am in the United States" said
 Senor Estacia, to study the results of your plugging civilization and to
 note those American inventions which
 would help us iu my country. The discovery of America destroyed Peru as 1t did Mexico The Peru of to-day IS small part of the ancient empire.
 At the time of the conquest the Spaniards found tile land in high state of cultivation. While naturally in large part desert, owing to very seant or no rainfall. between the noun tains and the coast, the natives. by the superior wisdom and foresight of their Incas had brought water immense distances and rendered arable vast stretches of country. The ancient ir- ! rigation of Peru was very. wonderful.
 Water was conducted by means of canals and subterraneoas aqueducts executed on grand scale. They were built of large slabs of freestone nicely fitted together without cement. The | supply came from some elevated lake or natural reseraoir in the heart of the mountains and was fed at intervals by other basins which lay on the route along the slopes. of the Sierra. Pas sagss were cut through rock eand-th Pernvians had no iron toofs); almost impasss ble. mountains were turned; rivers and increases were crossed and ] apparently impossible feats of engi- neering were accomplished simply to secure water for the irrigation of fields and gardens. Some of these canals were very long. That of Con desuyu was between 400 and 800 miles in length.
 sBy latent ducts or sIuices, the life giving fluid was led to the till able lands along the line of the canals. In some instances. the land was flooded,
 while in others the waters was made
 to run in furrows between the rows of
 growing maize, tobacco and other crops. Each occupant of land was allowed certain quantity of water by
 the law of the Empire. Overseers for
 the government had charge of each district and saw that every man re- ceived his proper amount, and that the canals were kept in repair.
 That the government understood the danger of floods and took steps to prevent them is shown by some of the works still exsznt. Notable is the still visible tunnel near Casamasca While the waters of this lake were a used for irrigation, the heavy rains 2 and melting suows of the mountains could cause an overflow To protect 3 the irrigation works and the settle.
 ments along the route, tunnel wal ], excavated in the mountains to give an e outlet, in another direction, to the i, waters of the lake when they rose to a e height to thereafter inundation.
 Q At the coming of the spaniard tn, y land every ahere teemed with evidene, d of agricultural wealth. said Senol 2 Estaeia, reaeetivelg To-day tn, . greater part of this paradise has re !. 7erted @ ias original arid condition ,, Itere and there, where some old dir y filled and long forgotten tunnel leak k little moisture, the rank vegetation Ie of our tropics, in contrast with tn Ie surrounding arid wastes. shows tn 1t power of irrigation"
 It This gives rise to the reflection tha a. the Spaniards, wherever their star o 'x ehivalry or rapacity for wealth le le them, have destroyed and neve a created. Their coming has slway d. been curse to the people they cor D. quered. Chivalgic and recklessl as brave, they yet considered the civiliza is ton and population of the New Worl 10 as but barbaric and pagan and it onl IT, for destruction.
 1d But these native tribes, people, gov
 ernments, benighted and heathen, ha en battled with Nature, learned tn K secret of success and conquered und, n- the most adverse circumstance az They made use of mountain lakes al w natural reservoirs, wherein wei a stored the waters of the rainy seasc i'll and the melting snows, to be us, at during the dry season.