The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-01

in order to save the water. dikes have
been made across It, and ~enbankmentS
run parallel with the river, turning
the whole country into a series of. haz
Sfn-like tereca.se. Each basin contains
from 5000 to 1900 acres. and the
bikes arc such that the water has 10
flow from basin to basin between the
Nile embellishments and the walls OF
the desert SO that one of ii Is lost.
These basins are often slb-diyided.
and they are so connected that the
water flows from one to the other.
ana nnally passes out of the lower
basin back into the Nile. When the
floods come TO the lowest basins are
fllled first and then those higher up.
until at last all have bevome great
ponods and Egypt is one vast inland
Sc cut up by the commandments and
Islands upon which the village stand.
There are forty-five such systems Of
basins in upper Egypt. some large and
some small. There are also basins
higher Up closer to the river which
are filled with sakiyehs or shadoofs,
rude irrigation pumps worked by ami
mails and men. When ! tell YOU that
the fall of this valley from here to
Cairo is only seven inches to the mile
YOU will see how carefully these basins
must be graduated in order to take
advantage OF the flow OF the river.
They have to be so made that the
water can be drained off as ra pidly
1S II 10 iGl III me ADNSSlildn nj
contains d great deal of salt, and it
Is just as bad to have too much Of il
as too little. If the and is over
watered the salts dissolve from the
soil and the Over-SOaked land becomes
| wOrmy and the crops are often SoWn
too late. the red water, or that con-
tanning the salt, is allo we'd to stand
on the land just about forty days.
During this time 1t drops a great deal
of sediment and furnishes enough
49, ! ~ ra fn- thn ornnG
Egypt in Flood Time.
Few people have any idea of the
work the Egyptians do in irrigating
task of keeping the basins in order
is herculean. AS the Nile rushes in,
the embankments are watched as the
Dutch watch the dikes of Holland.
They are patrolled by the village head
men and the least break Is filled with
stalks of millet and earth. The viii
lage officials have the right to call
! out the people to help. and no one re-
fuses. If the Nile gets too high it
sometimes overflows into the villages
and, the mud huts crumble. During
the flood the people gO about in
boats from village to village. The
donkeys, buffaloes and bullOcks live
on the dikes, and as do also the goats,
! sheep and canels-
The people sow their crops as soon
as the floods subside. Harvest comes
Without they have some means
of irrigation, outside the Nile
floods, they must wait until the
following year before they can plant
again. If they can have a dam like
this at Assouan the Nile can be kept
high throughout the year and they can
grow crops all the year round. This
is already the condition in a great
part Of the delta, and it is aimed to
} nvtnp1 70 tho fnrrr1o Of rJnnar ENDUnt
The AsSOuan Dam.
The Assouan lam is one of the
wonders of d Egypt. 1t is In
full sight of me as l sit here on the
left bank of the Nile with the desert
at my back. 1t looks like a great
stone viaduct crossing the rocky bed
of the river joining the stony hills
which wall the Nile on both sides and
holding back a portion of it's mighty
waters. 1t is a great granite wall,
eighty-six feet wide at the bottom
and twenty-six feet wide at the top,
rising 120 feet above the bed of the
river being a mile and a quarter in
length. There is now a roadway
guarded by walls on its top, and there
is a little car line, the wagons of which
are pushed by men, which runs over
it, from one side to the other. The
dam serves as a bridge as well, and
donkeys, camels and men are allowed
to pass over it from bank to bank.
crossed on the car at a cost of 25
cents, my motive power being two
Arab boys who came behind on the
trot.
How the Dam is Built.
AS I came over / stopped from time
to time to examine the construction
The dam is made of great blocks of
red granite as fine as that of any
tombstone in the United States. They
are beautifully cut and fitted as closely
as the walls of a palace. On the upper
side or north face the wall is per-
pendicular, forming a straight up and
down barreir against the waters OF
the Nile. I climbed down a ladder
on that side at one place almost TO
the river, and could see that the
blocks are fitted so closely that the
cement does not show. The wall seems
almost one solid stone throughout,
With the exception of where the great
sluices are cut, to allow the river to
flow through at the times of the flood,
and as the floods subside to shut back
the waters co form the great reservoir
for the dry season.
1000, OOO, 900 Tons of Water.
There are $50 of these sluice gates
doors that can be raised and lowered
to allow the whole river to flow
through or to hold back as much or as
little as the engineers will. The dam
is thus : great stone wall pierced
by these gates.
The Nile never flows over the top
of the dam. but always trough the
gates and the canal at one side. When
4 the gates are closed during the dry
season. enough water is held back by
this structure of steel and granite TO
form a AXE 40 miles long, and this
is let out as eeded to supplement
the ordinary flow of the river and give
the crops plenty of water all summer
through.
In order to appreciate the strength
of the structure it is necessary to
know the enormous weight it supports
When the reservoir is full the water
Tin itamounts to almost a quarter
of a trillion gallons. 1t contains 234,-
600 million gallons. 1t weighs
over 1000 million tons It is so heavy
thatif it were all loaded upon ago
it would take two billion horses to
haul the load. We nave in the United
States something like eighteen million
horses. One hundred times thai
MANY. all harnesse6 together and all
pulling at once could not carry the
weight which this masonry IS required
to hold back.
-u+o, could hn loaded on