East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-10-14
Irrigation in History.

The storage and distribution of have been closely
allied the of the human than other industrial ques
The puny problems which are now battling engineers
dwarf into insgnfnce when compared the problems which the
barbarans overcmc with their crude mechanical appliances and
clumsy labor systems.
The first record which history makes of Florence that maches
of Italy is when delegation of her citizens visited Roman
emperor before Christ and asked that provision be made by the Roman
the water of the Chane river prevent over
flow the and provide LATER when fam
BbyIons irrigation and storage systems were so complete that
historians a drop of wasted An entire civilization
built Ayra desert and perfect the distribution
plain where nothing but drifting sand The schemes
of and distribution amazing Hundreds of miles of
canals and aqueduc led from the the fartes plains
and rivers turned aside reclaim territory.
In Peru the greatest relies of civilization found he
western world bear evidence the skill and mechanical rowes of that
country in past
The highest of the Andes aversed by irrigation canals
supported piers and crossing canyons and cm hundreds
of feet DEPTH and leading for miles the arid plains beyond
where splendid civilization fourhed for centuries depending solely
upon irrigation for its community life
the Colorado New Mexico schemes of
irrigation have left their which barely dngushabc
the drifting magnificent than any under
taken by the United States lie buried and forgotten in those
deserts Judging from the remnants of the marvellous cities which
found projecting from the plains and which have been buried for
centuries, perfect system of civilization have existed
there And its entire basis irrigation The people indus
trial people Their country had been literally wrested from the desert
bv systems of storage and irrigation.
No American IRRIGATION project of the present day equals the
States
The Umala and Maleur projects which battling the
American engineers, small insignificant problems
pared these schemes which have diverted water from the highest
mountains hundreds of miles distant and after being conveyed through
aqueuc and stone and cement canals have been used to reclaim
deserts and build entire systems of civilization.
The questions of the of which battling
baffed the ancents Nature has pre-
sened the ndOmtabe front all which have ubdued
the earth Spring hets and summer drons have been c0ntended
with by the Babylonans Assyrans Greeks Egyptians Peans
which has build up the places of the earth
Nothing in irrigation is No scheme now in use by the
and distribution have been wreed with by barbarian
in forgotten The problems wc caused the Aztec
distribution Egypt Assyra American falter
Only the American schemes infinesma compared to some
which have f'"r''hed IN 'a'?a''y Y Y Y %
Nature has been prolific mother She has spread wild
beside the overfOwng The history
irrigation the past will be repeated the banks the Columbia
cal reduce the labor connected with reclamation
But all the main questions old Babylon Although dressed
IN different manner ana Carrying ARR & vas M Cognh b 96
century pondering the identical problems which engaged the AsSyr
The same questions DAMS reservoirs distribution of
water questions of evaporation seepage loss Of water in conveying
it through bitches built SANDAL these problems old Egypt
The Young enthusiastic Just college often magines
he pioneer wrestling with entirely problems in the industrial
Vain dream Antiquity filled with the schemes which en-
gage you They old when Egypt first wrese with them They
older But they have always been before man.
should the American activity to know that
although he dealing with problems which have been successfully
by barbarian modern invention and science have vastly I'm
proved his facilities
Steam and electricity have been placed in the hands Of the modern
engineer while main strength and awkwarnes were the only me
chanca forces used by the ncen Enlightened methods have
lessen the employed to accomplish irrigation today In h
past the end sought vastly difficult OF achievement because
of the at hand
And after all struggle with civilizations but fleet
systems best All the toll and skill of the nations of antiquity
ued in if consider their utter destruction today Ih
world made civilization The Acec fourhed her
in the highest spendor His dreams magncen
than the American His plans for future development perhaps out
shone the glorious hopes of today
But he in the buup structure of the world
His entire and civilization destroyed and oing
above his wrecked palaces and verant plains another system
of industrial art which we hope will stand always
When contemplate dverng the Columbia into the
stretches of central Oregon faer ourselves that such magn
cent of reclamation would stand for ages.
the oinp at his splendd aqueducts S