Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1911-11-29

4 help save the land from its thirsty
aridity. Lest anybody accuse Sir Will;
liam OF being an iconoclast. 1t may be
said that the bricks were taken from
their original site 80 years ago BY the
Turkish government, which tried to
build dam that, would send the wa
ters Of the Euphrates once more past
Babylon, or, what meant more to 1t.
past the modern town OF Hillah.
Making the Garden Of Eden Bloom.
til Sir William Willcocks. like all arch
aelogists and students of the Bible,
locates the Garden of Eden in the
ITigris-Euphrates delta. Sir William
hxesg the site at a point west Of Hit.
4 the famous springs from which both
antiquity and modern times secured
vast supplies of bitumen. These smok-'
ing and forbidding regions are said by
some to have given the ancients their
figure Of the angels with the flaming
swords at the gates OF the garden.
:Ss No doubt is entertained by the arch.
I biologists that It was in this region
that, civilization had its birth. Here
were the great empires of antiquity.
From beneath the drifted dust and
sitting mud Of Mesopotamia the schol-i
5ars with spades are digging up the
wonderful stories Of Babylon, Niftur,
Tello, Ninevah and RAsshur. while
other ''tells, 2 or mounds. such as mark
the site; OF Ur OF the Chaldess the city
Of Abraham's ancestors, await the
Z coming Of archaeological expeditions.
The Garden Made Desert.
As every traveller in this part Of the
world has remarked, the Moslem is
4 not builder. but a waster. The,
statement is commonly made concern
ing the Arab, but it is equally true
) Of the Turk. 1t seems as II the IA
4 talism and physical excuses Of Mo-
hammedanism cut the nerve Of initia-
tive and endeavor Certainly the fol
lowers OF the Prophet found this re-
gion garden; but they have made it
a desert. have travelled over a con-
siderable part Of Mesopotamia, by
kelek, horse, wagon. donkey, small
boat and afoot. Everywhere the same
story is repeated. It is all poverty,
ruin and desolation. The Arabs live
y in the same black tents that Solomon
sang about or else In miserable mud
4 novels. They have none of the con-
veniences of civilization. Life Is a
hand to.mouth existence. The appli-
ances of agriculture are primitive be-
yond belief small triangular
shovel, a little hoe about the size and
shape Of an adze, and sharpened
stick for a pillow.
Only small strip Of territory, lying
along the rivers, or the few subsidiary
canals that remain, is cultivated. Wa
ter is raised by the "cherit," leather
h bucket let down to the stream. and
hauled up by oxen, donkeys. camels
4 or cows. The process is cumbersome,
expensive and Inadequate. In a few
places oil engines and pumps made in
4 Britain and America, have displaced
the cumbersome cheTit, and It seems
B inevitable that they should become
4 general in the new day that Is dawn
ing for Mesopotamia.
Back of these cultivated areas lies
the Mesopotamia desert have
q CIdtSTSSu SSCIlUuS VI IL Wu6T6 uCC d
plant bigger than the camel thorn
could be seen. 1tlooks quite as desc
late as the sandy Arabian desert to
the west OF the Euphrates.: Yet 1t is
every foot good gray EARTH friable
and productive, needing only water to
make 1t pour forth crops to enrich the
markets of civilization and to deliver
the present population froms dire pow
erty. And the water Is still available,
as fully as 1t was when this region
was the worlds granary.
"The Father Of the Nile dams" Sir
William Willcocks, who has also had
extensive experience In Irrigation
work in India, has for years been call
ing the attention of the world to the
irrigation possibilities Of the delta OF
the Euphrates and the Tigris. There
Is no good reason why the ancient
productiveness of this district should
not be restored. The water is still
available, and the soil is as good as
ever 1t was. The only reason for its
ancient productiveness-which was SO
great that Herodotus was afraid to
describe it in full lest his veracity be
questioned-was the system Of canals
maintained by the peoples OF DID,
It Is to be remembered that the