Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-08-25
IRRIGATION IN
FAR-OFF EGYPT
WHAT AMERICA MAY LEARN
FROM THAT ANCIENT LAND.
\ TIMELY EXPOSITION
Vast System of the Nile Extensively
Illustrated at the Worlds Fair
The Wonderful Assuan Dam
Egypt's Ancient Waterways-PaI-
ace of Liberal Arts.

st. Louis, Aug. 19.-The Egyptian
exhibits at the worlds fair are of
special interest and value to Amer
lea. Egypt is the land of irrigation
not merely the laborious hand irri-
CATION that has descended to the ma
tive cultivators from remote an
tiquity, but the most strpendous
scheme of scientific irrigation in the
story OF modern engineering. All
the world has read about the great
dam at Assuan, completed year
ago, which will have the ultimate eff
feet of adding one-third to the entire
cultiyable area of lower Egypt. The
United States, with several big irri-
cation schemes in operation, has still
bigger ones in prospect Among the
latter is a barrier across the Colo
RADIO river at Yuma, which will not
merely rival the Egyptian dam in
point of magnitude, but may have
even more widereaching results. For
it viii create delta with radiating
canals in place of river that rolls
its waters uselessly into the sea, and
reclaim a desert where there is at
present neither cultivation nor popu-
latiOn. America thus turns to Egypt
for Important lessons, and through
the public spirit and friendliness of
the khedive many of these have been
sition.
IN the palace of liberal arts, both
in the special Egyptian section and
in the British section close by, the
vast irrigation system of the Nile is
extensively illustrated by means of
maps, a relief model of the country,
models of dams, sluices, locks, etc.
plans and diagrams, large-sized pho
tographs displayed on screens, re-
cording the different stages of con-
struction, and also supplementary al
buns of photographs that should not
be missed by those in quest of still
more detailed information. The task
of conserving the waters of the Nile
and improving the methods of dis
tribution Z was resolUtely taken in
hand by the British administration
in Egypt only in 1890, when security
of tenure and continuity of policy
:. seemed assured. Since then the
work has been unremittingly pur-
sued Mot merely has the great AS
suan dam in upper Egypt been built,
but the already existing barrages at
Assiout and at Cairo have been re-
constructed, ard the whole network
of canalization has been put into
thorough working order after GEN.
turtles of neglect.
The object of these operations has
been four-fold: % To extend the
oultivable area, (2) to drain water
logged tracts, (3) to distribute the
water more widely, NOR regularly,
and more justly, and (4 to secure
existing cultivation against loss by
drought. The success achieved has
been complete. Not only has vast
area of new ground been brought
under cultivation, but all the old land
is now secure against loss of crop
even when the Nile flood falls far
below the average. The condition to
the wealth of the country will only
be fully understood when it is re-
membered that the Egyptian cult
yator, with assured irrigation, secures
three crops every year, first cotton
in the summer, second cereals in the
winter. and third maize (our Amer
lean CORN in the flood season. This
intense cultivation does not exhaust
the soil. and no manures are required.
for the yearly food brings down its
fertilizing mud and spreads it over
the face of the land. So, ALTHOUGH
Egypt is a poor country because its
kItivators have been Systematically
nsSd for centuries by their
"A in reality one of the rich
countries in the world.
fish administration ex-
reed labor have been
limbo of forgotten
We agriculturist pays
IA yearly rent of
acre, and now,
certain water
kHulty in reallZ-
S $500 to $500
idly growing
found sense
ons, is be-
ethods, and
agricultural
banks are
village of
merely re-
advances for
e minimum
is having
ing the Egyp-
The covering
of a self
ent man. And
ineering works
yneficent results
carried out by
addition to The
be money coming
II reclaimed lands
problems. of course