Irrigation in Horticulture. 107 



resorted to for this purpose. Herodotus mentions the fact that canals were 

 constructed at great expense, and sometimes lakes and large reservoirs were 

 l)repared, by means of which the natural deficiencies might be remedied. 

 Even in modern times travelers speak of the remains of ancient traces of 

 structures as in existence, which indicate on how lar^ie a scale aids to ngricul- 

 ture of these ancient people must have been conducted 



Sir Henry Rawlinsin says: ''Rain is very rare in Babylon during the 

 summer months, and productiveness depends entirely on irrigation." 



Mr. Layard, in his researches in Assyria, says: " The Assyrians used ma- 

 chines for rais ng water from the river or from the canals when it could not 

 be led into the fields through common conduits." 



Herodotus refers to a machine or mode of raising water for purposes of 

 irrigation, called the handswipe. Representations of the handswipe have 

 been found on the monuments of Assyria. 



Through Persia and Syria, and all the more Eastern countries, irrigation 

 is practiced even to this day. In China and India, as is well known, it has 

 had an important place among the agricultural practices of these nations, 

 and dates back to remote antiquity. 



On this continent, in ancient Peru, the Spaniards found the most costly 

 works for irrigating lands. The Aztecs, of Mexico, also made use of irriga- 

 tion. Cato, the earliest of writers in Roman agriculture (150 years before 

 Christ), recommends to his countrymen to form water meadows. Pliny say.^ 

 that meadows ought to be watered immediately after the spring equinox, and 

 the water kept back when the grass shoots up to stalk. 



Virgil, in his well known Georgics, thus alludes to irrigation : 



"1)1" Iiiiu who oil liis laiKi, 

 Fresli sown, destroys ea(;h ridge of barren sand ; 

 Then instant o'er tlie leveled furrows brings 

 Refreshful waters from the cooling springs. 

 Behold, when bnrning suns of Syria's beams 

 ."^trike tiercely on the fields and withering streams, 

 , |)own from the summit of neighboring hills, 



O'er the smooth stones he calls tlfe babbling rills. 

 Soon as he clears whate'er their passage stayed, 

 And marks their future current with his spade, 

 Before liini scattering they prevent his pains, 

 Burst all abroad and drench the thirsty plains." 



The practice of irrigation prevailed likewise in the various parts of the 

 Roman empire, while the Moors seem to have introduced or prosecuted it 

 with vigor in Spain when they held possession of that country. Fraas, one 

 of the most recent German writers on agriculture, remarks that in modern 

 times certainly no question has more engaged the attention of the learned 

 agricidtural public than that of extensive irrigation, wholly different from 

 the primitive systems of the people of the southern regions, or, indeed, of 

 the people who, in the gray antiquity, conducted the civilization of the world- 

 He states that in all parts of Germany such preparations exist. Fraas comes 



