The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-11
A LESSON FROM EGYPT
USE OF A GREAT RIvFR,s
 WATERS IN AGRICULTURE.
Results of Fred Johnston's Studies of Especial Interest-view of the Beginning at National
 Irrigation Policy.
Washington Correspondence of the Ney
 York Evening Post.

are of first class interest. We are begfn- ming a national irrigation policy but on a scale which suggests that we shall not be many years in catching up with Egypts centuries of experience. Our ir- rigation fund already contains $10,0O0. .0O0
 and is growing rapidly. It exists as a
 result of a permanent appropriation, in law which could no more be repealed than the Mississippi be made to run up hill, except by the passage of a bill prom ising to do still more for the irrigation ists. Any cause so well trenched in our national budget as this deserves the at-
 tention of the whole country. The irri- gation congress which met at Ogden re- gently, is summoning, partly because of
 the dispute within the ranks of the irri- gationists themselves. the watchful inter- est of large numbers of persons outside of the arid belt. Many of our troubles in irrigation have been anticipated by Egypt
 centuries ago, as Prof. Johnston has
 found out.
 A second reason for giving passing glance to his conclusions is the light which they throw upon those large chap ters of human history which center about
 the Nile and its waters. Other streams seem to the onlooker to be set in the landscape to add to its charms or as a
 transportation avenue. or perchance to supply water power. But the Nile has, so far back as human records run, had a more serious mission; its contents have been the storehouse of the country's life
 An old tomb at Beni Hassan. fifty miles above Cairo. records this inscription as the greatest tribute to the virtue of an ancient ruler: And behold, when the in- undation was great and the owners of the land became rich thereby, laid no addi- tional tax upon the fields"
 Not only is the Nile pre.eminent among rivers in certain of its physical aspects, but it thus holds a place of its own in the extent to whicn the country is dependent on its floods. And yet the river Is a dis appointment to all American travellers; they see 1t in the winter. when its mean discharge varies from 9,000,000 acre-feet in November to 1000, ,000 in May, whereas in the later months of our summer-August and September-its discharge amounts to 20.00O,O00 of these units. Many of the river channels in the season of its high water are ancient canals. while every channel which the river in it's shifting course, attempts to abandon the Egyp-
 tian has promptly made the basis of a canal. Where nature ends and artifice begins in the elaborate network for dis tributing it's water is not always easy to tell.
 Northern Africa would be an uninter- rupted desert from the Atlantic to the Ihtu Ctd, 6ACopl IOT u HdETOW StTlD along the Mediterranean Coast, but for the Nile. Throughout it's tremendous length there is a thread of arable land. reaching a width in some places of ninety miles, but usually very much less. In some places the desert comes squarely to the river bank, as on our Colorado. From Assuan to Cairo the cultivated valley rarely exceeds nine miles in width. The delta of the Nile, which begins twelve miles below Cairo, contains the greater part of the irrigable land of Egypt But In spite of Egypt's having been called the granary of the world, MT. Johnston esti- mated that its total agricultural area Is today only 5,C0O0O0 acres, or but four times the size of the State of Rhode Is land.
 The Nile is in length second only to the Mississippi- Missouri system among rivers of the world its drainage area is how ever, put down as slightly more than the Mississippi The regularity of its flow is its element of chief importance If the Nile varied as capriciously in it's season of high water does the Mississippi at St. Louis, Mir. Johnston believes that az Is ultural Egypt would long ago nave ceased to exist. The Nile has but one high-water season each year, and this be- gins and ends so regularly that irriga- tors know when to prepare for 1t. Such sudden rises as occur in our Western rivers would be regarded by the fellaheen as an extraordinary manifestation of the i'll will of Providence. During the first part of July everybody in Egypt is anx- iously awaiting the coming of high water By the middle of August the stream be- gins to rise and by September 1 1t has become a mighty torrent. Upper Egypt becomes A lake, dotted with island vil- lages, and SO remains for a month or six weeks. After thirty days of flood the people begin to await signs of retreatlng waters. and reports from Assuan to that effect are eagerly welcomed. The belief prevails that i. the water stands on the land more than forty days insects will be so plentiful as greatly to injure the l crops. Prolonged high water also delays l the planting season. and so reduces the | harvest. During this period of high wa | ter the levees must pc constantly watched | by an army of men Twenty years ago | 2OO,"0o. under forced labor. were regularly | called out for this duty but with the | gradual abolition of that system this number has decreased. By October the | flood Is generally over, and from the we'll | filled basins water may be taken for farming operations
 Mir. Johnston tells of seeing many ex- treme high water levels marked on the rocks of the Nile in Nubia. On the Is- land of Phias he visited a gauge which of a narrow stairway leading by a subterranean passage from the sur face of the ground to the river Indica- tors were placed on the walls of this pas sa geway' graduated in cubits. The most celebrated of the gauges of the Lower Nile is one by which the graduations are recorded on a pillar standing Tn the cen ter of a well. the bottom of which is con nected with the Nile hy a passage. The column Is of stone and the well about six teen feet square. This nilOmeter Is grad uated in pics and kirats.
 Most of the water is naturally left by the floods of the Nile lower than the surrounding country. To lift it up to the fields has been in all centuries the great task Of the native agri1uturists A sys- tenn of well sweeps. one above the other. is often employed where the elevation is considerable. The bucket Is usually made of leather stiffened near the top by a wooden hoop, while the counter weight is generally q piece of sun-drled Nile mud held together by straw, corn stalks or sugar cane leaves. One man operates each device. and several. of them can lift up q good l"tl of water.
 The next most common system is the sakiyeh. of which there are 5000 m Egypt and 12O00 in the delta alone This is a cogwheel device operated by an OK or a water buffalo. Perhaps the most ingenious of all is the Archimedean screw. watertight wo1dcn cylinder bridges from the river to the bank. Within 1t turns an iron shaf' about which a wooden screw has been built One CT two men run the crank Provided the necessary elevation he not over two feet one man can irrigate two acres a day. But these nrinoiti,,e devices which have been little