The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-09-20
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GOVERNMENT STUDY OF IRRIGATION.


cumstance that this government has been investi-
eating the old Nile Of Egypt of which our own river
is a copy in many respects. will be particularly
interesting The department of agriculture sent a
Professor tombstone Egypt to study the irrigatng
methods along the stream. He found the most prim-
five means of raising water. Most of the water IS
naturally left by the foods Nile lower than the
surrounding country To lift it up to the fields has
been in all centuries the great task of the native
agriculturists. system of welsweeps, one above
the ether is often employed where the elevation is
considerable The bucket is usually made of leather
stfnened near the top by wooden hoop while the
counterweight generally piece Of sun-drled Nile
mud held together by straw, cornstalks, or sugar
cane leaves. one man operates each device, and
severaI Of them can lift up good deal of water.
The next most common system is the sakiyeh OF
which there are fifty thousand in Egypt and twelve
thousand in the delta alone. This is a cogwhee de-
vice operated by an water buffalo Perhaps
the most ingenious of all is the Archimedean screw
watertight wooden cylinder bridges from the river
to the bank Within it turns iron shaft about
which wooden screw has been built One or TWO
ton be not over two feet one irrigate two
acres day. But these primitive devices. which
have been little changed in centuries now des-
tined to give place to the steam pump, in spite OF
the high of coal and the scarcity of other fuel
The plan is for river scow to go up and down the
stream taking pumping contracts from the agricul-
turists. Cotton has to be watered four or times
during the growing season Wheat, maize, and all
fodder crops are generally twice irrigated
AS it is certain that the ultimate solution of irri
CATION in this part of America is matter of engln
eering of raising with economy the nexhaustole
supplies of underfow and sheet waters it is interest
ing to note the primitive machines mentioned above
and to remember that even by these rude processes
the Egypt irrigated tract supports from agriculture
100000 people, pays the expenses of costly gov
eminent and meets the interest of national debt
half as large as our For the Nile from ancient
times has been the storehouse OF Egypts life An
old tomb at Benz Hassan, fifty miles above Cairo,
records this inscription the greatest tribute to the
virtue of an ancient ruler And behold, when the
inundation was great and the of the land be-
came rich thereby laid no additional tax upon the
fields"
Not only is the Nile pre-eminent among rivers in
certain of its physical aspects but it thus holds
place of its own in the extent to which the country
is dependent on its floods. And yet the river is
disappointment to all American Travellers they see
1t in the winter when its discharge varies from
nine million acrefeet in November, to one million in
May, whereas in the later months of summer
August and September-its discharge amounts to
twenty million of these units Many of the river
channels in the of its high water ancient
canals while every channel which the rrver in its
shifting course attempts to abandon the Egyptian
has promptly made the basis of canal. Where
nature ends and artfce begins in the elaborate net
work for distributing its water is always easy
tell Northern Africa would be uninterrupted
desert from the Atlantic to the Red Sea- except for
a strip along the Mediterranean coast but
for the Nile Throughout its tremendous length there
is thread of arabic land reaching a width in
places of ninety miles, but usually very much less.
In some places the desert comes squarey 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 irrigabe land of Egypt. But in spite of
Egypts having been called the granary of the world
Mr. Johnston estimates that It's total agricultural
area is today only five million acres, or but four
times the size of the state of Rhode Island
The Nile is in length second only to the Mssis-
sippi Missouri system among rivers of the world:
its drainage area is, however put down as slightly
more than the Mississippi The regularity of its
flow is its element of chief Importance If the Nile
varied capriciously in its season of high water as
does the Mississippi at St. Louis Mr. Johnston be-
leves that agricultural Egypt would long ago have
ceased to exist The Nile has but one high-water
season each year, and this begins and ends so regu
larry that irTigators know when to prepare for it
Such sudden rises as occur in our western rivers
would be regarded by the feaheen as an extraor
binary manifestation Of the iu-win of Providence
During the first part of July everybody in Egypt is