IRRIGATION IN TURKESTAN 



By a. p. DAVIS, 



Chief Engineer, United States Reclamation Service. 



^y^ESTERN Turkestan is a portion of the Russian Empire and comprises 

 \\y the southwestern part of Asiatic Russia. Within its limits are the 

 provinces of Sir Daria, Ferghana, Samarkand and Trans Caspia. These 

 are Russian provinces entirely under the jurisdiction of the Empire. They 

 have a total area of 1,680,000 square miles, and a population of about 9,000,000. 

 The same general area also includes the provinces of Khiva and Bokhara, 

 which are nominally independent principalities, but are under the protection 

 of Russia. 



Nearly all of the drainage of Turkestan is into the Aral Sea, a body of 

 water about 200 miles long and 150 miles wide. It is only about GO feet above 

 sea level. The eastern and southern portions of Turkestan are traversed by 

 lofty mountain ranges, upon which the precipitation is very great, and is 

 mostly in the form of snow. These mountains are drained by numerous 

 streams, most of which lose their waters in the great sandy deserts of 

 Central Turkestan, but the largest two of which reach the Aral Sea. 



Most of the streams are used more or less for irrigation, the total irrigated 

 area in Turkestan being nearly 6,000,000 acres, of which over one-third or 

 2,000,000 acres is in Ferghana Province, and 3,000,000 are irrigated in Samar- 

 kand and Sir Daria Provinces, and the rest scattered through the other 

 provinces. 



Russian Turkestan is a region of very great historic interest. It 

 abounds in ruins of buildings, forts and irrigation systems, some of them 

 prehistoric. The celebrated expedition of Alexander the Great, penetrated 

 Turkestan as far as Khoghent, and ruins of fortresses built by his men may 

 still be seen. 



At a later date, the country was conquered by the renowned Jenghiz 

 Kahn, whose descendants reigned over Turkestan for several centuries. One 

 of them, Tamerlane, made his capital at the city of Samarkand, and built there 

 magnificent palaces and temples of substantial character and great archi- 

 tectural beauty richly decorated with mosaic. The usual native architecture 

 is of adobe, like that of New Mexico, 



Turkestan was conquered and reconquered so many times and so many 

 efforts to colonize it have been made, that its population is a complicated 

 mixture of Europeans, Mongols, Persian, Turkomen and various other peoples. 

 Agricultural and pastoral pursuits are their chief occupations, and their state 

 of civilization is similar to that of Mexico and Central America. Plowing 



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