The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-17
IRRIGATION IN HAWAII.
A Fine Piece of Hydraulic Engineer
ing Work.
CFrom the Scientific American.)

tFrom the Scientific American)
On the island of Mauri. one of the larg-
er islands of the Hawaiian group. an en-
| cheering feat has just been successfully
| carried through that has not its equal in
the Pacific islands. To supply water to
the Spreckelsville plantation, a canal has
| been dug along the slopes of the great
! crater of Haleakala, and by it a stream of
water flowing fifty million gallons daily is
| brought distance of twenty-five miles
| and thence distributed over the plantation
| lands
1t was no ordinary undertaking. the
| building of this great canal for in those
| twenty-five miles from Kailua Gulch to
| Spreckelsville there were gulches and
canyons by the score. each of which had
to be crossed, and there were a dozen or
more high ridges to pass. through which
it was necessary to dig tunnels, some of
which were nearly half a mile in length.
But thanks to the energy of the manager
of the plantation, the ditch was plowed
and successfully carried through By its
means 5000 acres of cane land was re-
claimed; land which had before been CON
sidered waste and barren; where nothing
grew but lantana bushes and here and
there few algerobas. In another year
il is likely that all this land will be
placed under cultivation and will flourish
with green cane. Work on the ditch was
begun on July 2S, 1899, and the water was
flowing through it on September g. 1900.
The work OF completing the ditch had
been much delayed. owing to the epidemic
of plague which afflicted the islands In
the past spring. Its actual length. from
kailua Gulch. where the water is taken
out, to the boundaries of Kihei planta-
tion, at the farther side of SpreckeIsvill2
plantation, is 219 miles. In this distance
there are no less than seventy-four tun-
nels, with an aggregate length of 20.S50
feet. or nearly four miles. The longest
of these tunnels is / $50 feet in length
and there are several which run over
LOCO feet. OF open excavation there are
1887 feet, and there are nineteen fumes
whose length aggregates 1855 feet.
But the most striking feature of the
ditch is the manner in which it is carried
over the numerous gulches which scar the
sides of the great extinct crater. Some of
these gulches are very deep, and their
sides are nearly perpendicular. To cross
them pipe lines are used. not stretched
across on trestles, but following the less
expensive and more stable method of
dropping into the gulches and allowing
the water to flow on the principle of the
inverted siphon. OF these siphons there
are twelve along the line of the ditch all
built OF quarter-inch pipe. forty-four
inches in diameter. Their aggregate
length is 1890 feet. or nearly one mile.
The largest of them crosses Maliko Gulch,
a cash in the slope of the volcano which
stretches nearly from the summit to the
sea, and which is $50 feet deep and less
than quarter of a mile wide Across
this gorge it seemed next TO impossible
TO carry a siphon. but Engineer E. L.
Van Der Neillen, who planned the ditch
and carried it successfully to completion.
succeeded in doing the work