The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-06
ANCIENT IRRIGATION.
In Egypt. India and the Far East
They Are sim Found In Use.

/ queohoh - 80 DIOdu ana comprehensive
| and there is SO much 10 learn about il in
/ its different aspects under various condi-
/ tons that when men embark in large irri-
| cation enterprises without a fun knowi-
| edge of The subject they frequently do not
| attain entire success.
| Primitive man did no. at first commence
| to irigate great valleys and plains. He
| began with small patch Of ground and a
! little stream Of water or a well from
which the water was Iaboriously drawn.
! Then he learned later to broaden his oper
atoms and to work in communities until
| he was finally able to handle great pro
| jects. There are thousands of cases of in
d.vidual irrigation in this country and
| some of them are extremely satisfactory,
where men, by employing the forces of
nature through the medium of windmlls,
/ lrrigate small farms. Taken separa ely,
these are insignificant as compared with
| The great irrigation systems yet they are
complete and effective IN themselves and
a comparison of them with the primitive
methods which have been employed for
centuries and are still in use by people in
other lands, may not be undressing.
The early history Of irrigation in Egypt
and India is replete with lessons. show
ing as it does the gradual development Of
the art from the most primitive. simple
and iabOrious methods. Without artificial
watering both of these countries would to
day be largely desert Cultivation in the
tropics or semi-tropics can rarely be con-
Quoted over any large extent of country
except by artificial watering Of at least
some portion of the crops. The rainfall in
some sections may be utterly insufficient
in any se ason to mature the crops. In parts
of the Punjab in India The rainfall aver
ages from . TO 4 inches only, while in the
entire basin of the Nile, the rainfall is
practically nothing. Even in parts of the
HimHlayas where the rainfall averages 80
and even 100 inches annually, it is 50 I'M
evenly distributed that crops in the dry
| season must be matured by artificial irri-
cation.
Crude and Picturesque Methods.
Various methods have been employed, in
| centuries past, 10 utilize. water for crop
growing, and some of the crudest are sta
in use. The Persian water wheel is now
found In various forms in Egypt and In
dia consisting of a series Of earthen pots
strung on an endless rope and
revolving in a wheel with a horizontal
axis. The lower end of the rope descends
into the well or tank filing the pots as
the wheel revolves and as they rise and
reach the top of the wheel they tip over
and empty themselves into a trough then
descending to the the water to be filled
again. These wheels are generally actu-
ated by buliOcks or sometimes by horses
and cameis, and in Egypt both a camel
and donkey are often harnessed together
in the truck. In some PAGES where there
are many small canals with comparative
ly rapid slopes and high velocites these
wheels or sakias, as they are called in
Egypt, are driven, usually as undershot
wheels, by the streams themselves. In
the Punjab il is not an uncommon thing
to see oxen lifting water by Persian
wheels from depths of fifty to sixty feet
for irrigation of spring or summer crops.
Another apparatus which is extensively
used in India for the larger lifts is called
the mote. Two bullocks raise a leathern
bag by means of a rome and pulley. When
the bag reaches the top of the lift the
water is released into a trough.
AS Seen in New England.
For lifts four to ten feet the shadouf is
extensively employed on the banks of the
Nile This simply consists of the old
fashioned pole and bucket which can still
be seen in many a New Eug.and farm
yard. The pole is pivOted on an upright
crotch and weighted at the butt end with
a stone, and the rope and bucket are at
tached to the small end. When the rope
is pulled down and the bucket filed, the
pole nearly balances itself, so that a slight
effort will raise the bucket. Another crude
but ingenious contriVance for making short
lifts of from two to three feet is the doom,
which is used along river banks. This
consists of a trough, usually half of
small tree which works on a fixed pivot
one end being depressed into the river and
then raised above the horizontal so that
the water flows out of the other end into
| a ditch or receptacle. The means for rails
| Ing the water are the same as in the New
| England well, by the use of a weighted
| pole. To manage this a platform is built
out into the river. upon which the opera
tor stands, alternately submerging and
| raising the trough.
These and other primitive irrigation
| methods are still largely employed in In
| dia and Egypt for the reason that while
| the work is laborious and would be ex-
| pensive if computed at day labor for man
or beast, in many cases the cultivator en-
| ploys only himself and his bullocks when
| there is no other work on hand 1t was
reported by an officer of the British army
| that in 1860 there were 10000 masonry wells
and 100000 temporary earthen ones in the
tract of land lying between the Jumna
and the Gauges rivers from which l 40. 900
acres of crops were irrigated by lift. and
although this tract is now commanded by
the Ganges irrlgaung canal, many of these
wells are yet used to irrigate lands which
have not been connected with the canal.
During the investigation of the extent to
winch the dIlu ldndS OF America can be
reclaimed by irrigation, attention has been
continually drawn 10 the most practical
methods of bringing underground water to
the surface While the amount which could
be thus drawn in the aggregate is not large
as compared with the water used i'm the
great irrigating system and while the in
terests of the windmill irrigator and the
| reservoir of canal irrgator do not at first
appear TO be al ali identical, there are in
reality many points in common. and the
water to be obtained 10y this means is
practically inexhaustible by the ordinary
methods of pumping. As stated in the
beginning of this article any work on ir-
rigation methods by whatever means
tends to educate farmers in this particular
branch OF agriculture and the small farmer
who irrigates by means of wind-power be-
comes familiar with the use of water in
growing crops. and is thus wei qualified to
engage in more extensive irrigation should