822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



close union of these two constituent elements of our world. That 

 is the fundamental idea of our agricultural and hydraulic phi- 

 losophy. 



The distribution of water by canals dates, in China, from the 

 fabulous epoch. Having been carried on before letters and liter- 

 ature existed, we do not know what method was at first employed. 

 In the year 2300 B. c, according to our annals, in the reign of the 

 Emperor Yao, China was visited by a deluge extending over the 

 whole empire. It lasted nine years, during which the whole 

 country was a submarine domain. The waters of this flood were 

 drained away by the enterprise of the Emperor Yu, our Noah, 

 who employed seven years in dividing the country into nine 

 regions, separated from one another by artificial water-courses 

 which were like natural frontiers. After the water had been 

 withdrawn he had the qualities of the lands of each province 

 examined, and the products ascertained which they could afford ; 

 established the unit of land measure, and fixed nine classes of im- 

 posts, graduated according to the fertility of the lands and their 

 situation. The conditions thus established lasted ten centuries. 



In 1100 b. c. the prime minister of the Emperor Wou-Weng, 

 Tcheou-Kung, constructed norias, or hydraulic machines of sim- 

 ple design and working, by which water was raised to a height to 

 which it had never been carried before, and made reservoirs and 

 canals for irrigation. Water was conducted, by means of ma- 

 chinery, from the wells to the dry hill-tops, and water provision 

 was assured for times of drought. Agriculture, in consequence, 

 flourished. Other measures of Tcheou-Kung comprised the pro- 

 mulgation of laws respecting the boundaries of properties and the 

 prevention of trespasses. The fields were divided into squares 

 called wells, from their resemblance to the Chinese character sig- 

 nifying a well, surrounded and furrowed by ditches so arranged 

 that eight farmers, each tilling his own tract, united in cultivat- 

 ing the ninth, interior tract, which belonged to the state, and the 

 produce of which paid their rent. 



The system succeeded to a marvel. Each tenant was proprie- 

 tor of about fifteen acres, the whole product of which belonged to 

 him, while the state was really proprietor of the whole, and had, 

 as a landlord, the income of the ninth tract. Besides this, each 

 farmer had some 3,350 square metres of ground for his farm-yard 

 and his mulberry-trees. Thus he always enjoyed a surplus of 

 provision, of pork and poultry for food, and silk for clothing. No 

 one at this time was richer or poorer than another, but a com- 

 plete social equality existed, and every one, they say, was satis- 

 fied. The dynasty under which this system was established fell 

 into decay about 600 B. c, when a period of feudal oppression set 

 in that lasted for two hundred years. At the end of that time 



