SECOND DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 237 



the great water-shed of Central Africa, and the river Nile, constituted 

 for her natural reservoirs and an irrigating canal which have secured 

 during centuries an abundant supply of water at regular intervals; 

 so that Egypt was the granary of the Eastern hemisphere. Depend- 

 ent upon her rainfall, Egypt would have remained a part of the 

 "Great Desert." Arabia, Abyssinia, and all the nations of anti- 

 quity practiced irrigation extensively. The Maub Valley, Arabia, 

 was irrigated from a reservoir in which the waters were confined by 

 a dam of high hewn stone, two miles long and one hundred and 

 twenty feet high. 



The Pharaohs canal, connecting the Red Sea with Pelusium, wa& 

 built and used for irrigation. Assyria and Babylon were netted with 

 like canals. 



THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT 



Upon assuming control of India found vast irrigating ditches, and 

 upon the wealth produced from the lands irrigated by these, depended, 

 largely, the grandeur and wealth which so excited the greed of Eng- 

 land. 



The green and fertile plains of China owe their productiveness and 

 capacity to support their teeming millions to tlie same causes. Accord- 

 ing to J. Ross Browne, who made a tour of the celestial kingdom, 

 "nearly the whole of this vast region is intersected by rivers, canals, 

 and ditches, forming an immense network of irrigating systems and 

 navigable highways. * * * The great canal is one of the most 

 wonderful works in the world. By means of its river connections it 

 formed, before its partial destruction, nearly a continuous water com- 

 munication from Pekin to Canton, a distance of one thousand four 

 hundred miles. The canal itself is six hundred and fifty miles in 

 length; almost every acre is turned to account." 



Italy and Spain have given irrigation much attention. In the 

 former the waters of the Po are utilized. This river, rising high in 

 the mountains, running along its bed often higher than the roofs of 

 houses, is tapped here and there and its waters drawn off to " spread 

 plenty over a smiling land." 



In the south of France is a canal which cost, originally, $8,000,000. 

 Lombardy irrigates nearly one million five hundred thousand acres. 

 Of Peru, Prescott, the historian, says: "Canals and aqueducts were 

 seen crossing the lowlands in all directions and spreading over the 

 country like a vast network diffusing fertility and beauty around 

 them." 



In North America the beneficial effects of irrigation have been 

 felt. In New Mexico the Aztecs were once prosperous and highly 

 civilized. There extensive ruins of canals are to be found. Arizona 

 exhibits traces of 



A VAST SYSTEM OF CANALS 



Which formerly must have rendered fertile large portions of the 

 present desert — the ruins of once populous cities being found in 

 many places. 



In Texas, as early as 1740, the Spaniards constructed irrigation 

 ditches, none of which are in use at the present time. 



Of all irrigation in the United States, that of Utah has been the 

 most extensive and beneficial. Thirty-three years ago a traveler over 

 this region would have beheld a barren waste of parched and unpro- 



