Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1930-12-28

IRRIGATION
THROUGHOUT THE AGES
(JLDER than written history is the art of irrigation.
S HAn before e Christ si S.. q sa sh a sssrd n q fs a sa.1 T i4n 91s E %Pfs as:n r% f%' r iss
Nina was the Goodies Bau. the Great Mother
/ ming simultaneously %osS " % ts ssrd til s Of tS sss sa lHsasa' Of ' %Ss sSat nGt ITS 'SS"'
L Indus, mighty rive of India, have tapped that stream with a system of
everin increasing canals
IN MADRAS or 1nda' other side, early inhabitants le~ned Ito build
streams during the rdny season. with which to later Lrisae large tracts Of
still in efficient USE.
TIMUR THE TARTAR in nothen India. tempging his many evil
deeds, left a record of worthy accomplishment in irrigation canals con-
thcentury the great kbar in the sixteenth century, and Emperor Shah
Jehan in the seventeenth century continued the work of watering the lands in
Essas.h%ia It's a assse1 e @~ VI a fs s. sasss s h; e S King sssa. 'S u. SS?4 sh N a't e: a'S fs
to which the tmbid flood waters led through canals and allowed to ssturate the soil
FOR SIX dyn~Hs this suffesd but as the population Of the country be;
Cd6 SIcdtId anu kiCoI," "t oAh 0 StNNNNA
productivity an undertaking which was accomplished by the great PharaOh'
of the Twelfth Dynasty about $500 B c.
IN BRINGING this about a mastefl feat IF engineering was skGlth-
L H carried out-a canal was dug from the Nile to a large depression 80 fur
longs distant and this depression was converted into a lake described by al
ncient write as amazingly useful and incredibly large. The lake. named
Lake Moens ahert tn ruling King, hasb been long considered me of the great
est wonders Of the ancient world.
uERODOTUS CB. C. 45) tensth "the waer in the lake is mot dev-
! ed from local sources fort he earth in that part is naturally excessively dry
and watness but it is brought in from the Nile by a canal
IIODORUS SICULUS writing in B. c. &c relates Through this
~ (canaD hea admitted or let out water as required, the mouth beng opened
or closed by IN elaborate and costly process flor it cost mott less than so talents
whenever anyone wished to open or close the mechanism. This lake has
continued to serve he Egyptians orthis purpose own to our wi times"
TN SUNNY SPAIN water still flows in canals built in times so ancient that
i there remains no reliable recordo of when they we're constructed. Here in the land
of little RAIN raising olives cereals garden truck and citrus fruits, the Arabian,
the conqueing Roman, and the native Spaniard for decade after decade have ac-
tcd the art of irrigation.
A ND in AMERICA too, irrigation harkens back beyond written history.
"A Here in our W Southwestern United States are the remainso irrigation works
TN lEAAS early in the 18th century the franciscan fathers building their mis-
i Gns near San ntoniot themselves oo oiled with the hertage OF many years OF T-
- rigaton in their native SPAIN built cana Is to take water from the San Antonio R-
r. These early irrigation systems are still in evdence-some Of the canals are in
use even &.
n ND TEXAS moving forward in irrigation with the advance Of time. has re-
n Gently undertaken the construction o f the largest irrigation project within its
border-Winacy County Water Con troll and Improvement District No. la
project of 100000 fertile acres To irgate these lands q plan pecedented on GEN.
tWies of su@esful use Egypt is being followed-jut as King Moers dug a canal