The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-16
IRRIGATION.

The work Of retaining the ARD
plains Of the great west and the deserts
OF California ana Arizona bring to mind
the fact that thousands OF years ago
irrigation was employed in Asia, and
the earth caused to bring forth fruit
and grain in great abundance. Meso-
potamia. situated in the Asiatie Turkey
Of today, is one Of the earliest examples
afforded by history. It was in this
valley that the Almighty promised to
make the descendants Of Abraham
great nation, and it was here that the
children of Israel were sold into the
hand Of the king OF the country by She
Lord after the death of Joshua for
serving Bslaam. which captivity lasted
eight years. The London Saturday Re
view recently contained the following
description of these ancient irrigation
works:
Rivers are always the wet-nurses Of
the earliest civilizations, and in this
respect the Tigris and Euphrates are
rivals of the Nile, for Babylonia, like
Egypt. was a rivers gift. The Mos
opotamian valley is intersected. grid
iron fashion. by huge canals-not dug
out, but built upon the earth's surface,
crossing the plain from river 10 river
and seeming 10 the traveller like ranges
behind ranges of curiously regular hills.
From these, lesser canals branched in
all directions and gave birth in turn to
others still smaller, until at last the
final threads carried the life-giving
water TO every grove and garden and
individual palm. A system OF irriga-
ton so mechanically perfect and on 50
vast a scale was never elsewhere seen.
All the wealth and splendor and power
Of the ancient Babylonian and AssyTian
empires were founded upon this sys-
tenn. They issued from and were de-
pendent upon it. The prosperity Of the
country hung upon its water supply as
absolutely as the existence Of a Sa-
haran oasis hangs upon its we'll A
harm done to the irrigation system was
/ felt through all the civilization it nour-
ished."
But the Mesopotamian civilization
passed away when the complicated If
rigation system was allowed to decay.
/ The Tigris and Euphrates still flow on
either side Of the country once rich and
powerful but now, alas unproductive
except along the river banks. It is in
/ habited by Kurds and Arabs who are
content with the scant pasturage and
whose very existence is precarious in
the extreme.
In the United states today We are but
following in the footsteps Of the print
tive inhabitants Of Asia when we take
the water Of the rivers and apply it 10
the lands which would otherwise be
barren. There is this difference. how
ever: The irrigation works are more
! permanent in character and built upon
more scientific basis. The age in
which we live is more enlightened. and
there is no danger of the country being
overTun by a foreign foe. The irriga-
ton system OF Mesopotamia required 9
multitude of trained laborers and ex-
pert engineers TO keep it in order. while
the works in the western part Of the
United States, finished or in course OF
construction. require the attention OF
comparatively few people for their up
keep.
Hundreds Of years hence the plains
and valleys now being made TO blossom
viii in all human probability still smile
upon the husbandman who tills the soil