Amador ledger., 1900-03-23
irrigation IN Old SPAIN
Large Areas Are Artifcially
Watered.
THE COUNTRY, HOWEVER, IS NOT VERY ARID
The Effect of Irrigation On the Pop
ulation.-Methods of Irrigation
In Rice Culture.

The most prosperous agricultural
provinces of Old Spain are the two in
which the soil is probably the poorest
in the kingdom. But the valleys of
both provinces are thickly scanned with
irrigation canals and the slopes are
carefully terraced for cultivation. This
explains the paradox
A very large proportion of Spain's
cultivated area is under irrigation.
Almost all the vegetables and garden
fruits, lemons, oranges and rice are
grown by irrigation. while the grains,
vines and olives are chiefly dry farmed.
Supplemental irrigation is practiced,
irrigated crops being grown alongside
of non-irrigated. Ancient and modern
methods of irrigation seem to go along
almost hand in hand. Simple water
wheels are in common use to obtain
water from wells, the power employed
being horse, and the method of con-
veyance small buckets, after the an
cient Egyptian fashion. On the other
hand, many artesian wells have been
sunk for irrigation and modern wind
mills are coming into use.
ROMAN AND MOORISH WORKS.
The total irrigated area of Spain is
nearly 100000 acres, and some of
this comprises systems of great age
and of expensive construction. In
Valencia and Catalonia the water used
is derived from swift mountain streams,
whence it is conveyed by long canals or
acequias along the mountain sides or
by lofty aqueducts to the fields on
which it is to be used. Some large
storage reservoirs called pantanos have
been constructed, feeding a dense net
work of canals distributed over broad
plains. Many of the old irrigation
works, such for example as those of
the plains of Taragona, date from the
Romans and many other from the
Moorish period, while new ones are
being laid out at the present day.
PoPULoUs UNDER IRRIGATION.
The effect of this irrigation is shown
by the significant fact that the irriga-
ted portion of the province of Murcia
has population of 1851 per square
mile as against only 101 per square
mile from the entire province, while
Orihuela has population of 767 per
square mile as against 1874 from the
whole province. This shows the ac-
complishment of irrigation IN a humid
region. Of course in our own terri
tory the difference in population be-
tween many irrigated and non-irrigated
sections is far greater and might be as
one to 100, if not one to 1000.
When the great progress being made
in irrigation in other countries is con-
sidered, and it is remembered that the
work has scarcely begun in the United
States where tens of millions of acres
lie waiting for reclamation, it must be
acknowledged that half the productive
capacity of the world has not yet been
reached.
IRRIGATED RICE FIELDS.
The most productive rice lands are
always irrigated. Over hundred
thousand acres of rice are irrigated in
Louisiana, and the method employed
by the planters place them at the head
of the world in rice culture. Their
advantage lies in irrigating in such
manner that they can cut their crops
by machines instead of by the ordinary
method of the hand sickle. Rice irri-
cation cOntemplates complete flood
ing of the field and leaving tho roots
under water, rice being an aquatic
plant. This being the case the only
way left for harvesting is for the
negroes to wade into the marsh aud
cut the grain by hand, The Louisiana
planters, however, lay their fields off
in plats and throw up burrows around
them, forming little walls or levees.
Then at the proper time the water is
turned in and the rice grows. When
the grain Is just about matured these
miniature walls are broken down, and
the water run off. After several DAYS
the ground is dry and firm enough to
allow horses and machines to go upon
it and harvest it as they would wheat
or other grains, This places the rice
crop Of Louisiana abreast of these
other crops, whereas, under the old
method it is hundred years to the
rear. What would next years wheat
crop be if its harvest we're dependent
upon sickles2 And yet, with the excep-
tion Of these Louisiana fields, the rice
crop of the South is to-day irrigated
and cut as it was century before
Brigham Young's followers laid out
their first ditch in the wilds of Utah.