The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-07-25
History and Development Of irrigation.

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The very earliest attempts to con-
struct complicated machinery were for
irrigation purposes, and the systems of
irrigation in those distant days in the
Far East, in Babylonia and in Egypt,
dating back in the last named country
to twenty centuries before Christ, fur
nish as important chapter in the his
tory of invention as in the story of ag-
ricultural development.
In those primeval days the water was
hoisted from the wells and streams by
means of water wheels and ditched to
the cultivated fields. Often the water
wheels were turned by man, sometimes
by cattle, and later by the water power
of the stream itself Thus the stream
was harnessed to do the work of man,
and for the first time power, other than
that of flesh and blood, became known.
To this day number of old water
wheels, modelled almost exactly like
those long since gone down to dust,
can be seen operating in Arabia, Egypt,
Mexico and in the Philippine Islands.
The irrigation systems of India and
Egypt are now controlled by the gov
eminent, and for the most part modern
machinery is used. Across the Nile, at
Assouan, a great dam has been built to
store water against the dry season. In
ted in northern Italy, southern France
and throughout Spain. The British
holdings in South Africa and Australia
are also greatly benefited by irrigation.
In America irrigation was practiced
thousands of years ago by the prehis-
toric BODYBUILDING Pueblo Indians in
New Mexico and Arizona. The descend
ants of these Indians still cultivate
lands which were titled by irrigst ton
when the treasure seeking Spaniards
came up from the South, and even now
practice many of the customs of their
ancestors. High along the steep cliffs
in the canons of the Southwest still
exist the ruins of the former homes of
the extinct race of cliff jewellers. and in
the broad valleys below can be seen to-
day the ruins of their stone dams and
irrigation canals-all that is left to tell
the story of Americas first agricultur-
lists.
The first systematic application of IT.
rigation to be made by the whites in the
United States was inaugurated by the
MormOnS on the shores of the Great
Salt Lake in 1S47. The Mormons found
Utah anything but the promised land
for which they had hoped. From ne
cessity they resorted to irrigation and
soon made the barren site of Salt Lake
City one of the most prosperous CON-
munities in the West. A few years
later the placer miners in California
utilized their placer washing streams
for irrigation purposes and raised large
crops of vegetables and grain. How
ever, irrigation did not make any ex-
tensive Roadway until after the civil
war and during the early '70's, when
the great tide of immigration turned
toward the West. In 1870 only about
10000 acres of land were cultivated by
irrigation in the United States. In the
next ten years this number was in
creased to 1,000,0 900 acres. During the
years between 1SS0-90 irrigation eX-
perienced great boom, and the num-
Der of acres increased to nearly 4OOO,-
900. In 1902, the last census, the acre
age was 9,034, 500, and each month sees
thousands of acres added until the total
is nearly $4,000, ooO acres to-day.
In the modern history of irrigating
have been accomplished which are the
these feats mountains have been tun-
neled, streams carried hundreds of miles
out of their natural courses: lakes have
been tapped; whole rivers diverted and
huge storage reservoirs constructed.
Irrigation has grown with such leaps
and bounds that natural gravity alone
cannot be depended upon to supply the
water where needed, and electricity is
now being used to drive the mammoth
centrifugal pumps raising the water to
unusual heights.
Among the great irrigating engineer
ing feats of this country is the wonder
full Strawberry Valley project at Yer
nal, Utah, now under way, where stor-
age reservoir will be built to hold five
billion gallons of water, and tunnel
8 1-2 miles long is being cut through
mountain. The work is being done by
electrically driven tools, and when COM
pleted the water will first be used to
generate electricity for lighting and
power purposes, and then for irriga-
ton. The entire electrical equipment
for this plant was furnished by the
General Electric Company. The Will
liston, North Dakota, project and the
BufOrd-Trenton project in the same
State are operated entirely by electric
ity. The current is generated by Curtis
steam turbo-generators and is used to
drive the large motors connected with
the centrifugal pumps. Another system
has been installed at Garden City, Kan
sas, and still another at Salt Lake, Ari-
IONA. At the last named place the YER
tical shaft General Electric generators
are directly connected with large water
wheels for generating the current.
From the old hand wheel of prehis-
toric man to the modern motor driven
centrifugal is long cry, but it fully
demonstrates the progress of power
and complicated machinery from the
start to the present. Who knows what
the future will be?