The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-06-29

on earth more deserving OF close at
tention from American manufactur-
ers, merchants and farmers than
Mesopotamia and Babylonia. For
within the next few years the coun-
try watered by the Tigris and the
Euphrates is destined to be the scene
of the greatest contest for commercial
supremacy in modern times. In an
cient times, when the whole of Mes
observation-disclosures and the greater
portion of the country lying between
the Tigris and Kurdistan were arti-
ficially irrigated, those parts held the
principal granaries of the world, the
soil, according to Herodotus, yielding
commonly two hundred and three
hundred fold When the Chaldeans
Ephrates. they constructed huge ir-
rigation works which turned the
land from sandy waste into a vast
and luxuriant garden The whole
plain was dotted with prosperous and
populous cities set in the midst of
engirdling areas of wheat. for it is
from this region that wheat, origin
ally found in a wild and uncultivated
state, was taken and gradually trans
planted all over the world. At that
period the land was protected against
the foundations of the rivers and
watered in times of drought by stu
'pendous system of bikes and canals,
which, even at the present day, in a
ruined and sand-choked condition,
cover like a network the face of the
country.
Naturally fertile and once the rich
est region not only in Asia but in all
the world. MesopOtamia, owing to ne
glect, is now a barren waste. The
ancient irrigation works persisted be-
cause the country was so torn asun-
/ der by internecine warfare that the
| inhabitants ceased 70 keep them in
repair. The scene of the sudden de-
| struction which overwhelmed the
cities of the plain is still visible The
! Tigris burst its bonds and temporar-
/ lily engulfed a great area, and from
that day to this desolation has reign
ed supreme around ancient Opis.
! There comes then from Egypt
modern Moses, Willocks by name, a
baronet and an engineer of note, who
| has been entrusted by Turkey with
the survey Of the works for restoring
/ the ancient canals and irrigating
channels along the Tigris by which
| the plains of Mesopotamia, after
centuries of waiting, will be restored
to their old-time luxuriance and
prosperity. Sir William Willcocks,
known to fame as the builder of the
great Nile dam at Assuan-an eco
nomic success, If ever there was one
divides the region which he pro-
poses to restore into two sections:
One. Upper Chaldea, representing an
area of 1,2SO,000 acres of first-class
land waiting only for water to yield
at once a handsome return; the 9TH
err, Lower Chaldea, 100000 acres
| in extent. although highly valuable,
| he considers was never as fertile AS
| Upper Chaldea, it's soil having be-
come impregnated with salt. Suffice
resemble closely those in operation
! today in the Nile valley and present
no exceptional difficulties to the en-
| gineer. The cost is estimated at ap-
proximately forty million dollars,
from which, 1t is calculated, there
will be net income of ten million
dollars per annum, or twenty-five
per cent on the capital invested. Let
those who know Egypt say whether
they consider such figures too SAN
guine
Needless to say, it was the project
| OF the Bagdad railway which first
suggested to Sir William Willcocks
the scheme that now, under the aus
pices of the Turkish government, he
| is about to carry out. But, like all
men Of minds too great to allow
minor issues to preoccupy them, he
is not concerned with the question of
who is to build the projected railway.