SYSTEM OF IRRIGATION. 75 



good thing. Each one can have only a small amount of laud, 

 because it must be watered, must be carefully tended, and every 

 single inch must be made to produce all it can. The houses 

 being near together, the people can get readily to church, to 

 the school-houses, and to the places of amusement. 



Then comes the time for letting the water on to the crops. 

 From the large canals many small canals come down by each 

 man's land. There must be enough of them, so that each man 

 can have control of one of those canals long enough to per- 

 fectly irrigate his lands. That is the problem ; and the best 

 men in the community arrange this matter — determine where 

 the canals shall go, how long the water shall be taken from each 

 canal, where it shall be brought in order that the land may be 

 perfectly irrigated ; and they decide that such a man can have 

 the water so many hours to-day, and so many hours three days 

 from now. Every man knows the time when he can turn the 

 water on his land, and when it must be turned off; and no 

 matter whether it is midnight, or cock-crowing, or any other 

 time, when that moment comes, he must be ready to turn the 

 water on his land. And not only that, but before that time 

 comes, the ditches must be cleared out, and everything arranged, 

 so that, when the water is turned on, it will go where it is 

 needed. There is no time to lose. The whole system makes 

 men wary and watchful, makes them look out beforehand. A 

 man knows, for instance, that to-night, at twelve o'clock, he 

 may turn the water on to his garden for three hours, and that 

 when it has run three hours, his neighbor can turn it on to his 

 garden, and if he oversleeps, his garden must go dry; there is 

 no help for him. Or if his ditches are not prepared, so that 

 the water can run along readily, his crops must suffer. You 

 see, the man must have everything in readiness, the ditches all 

 arranged properly, and when the time comes, he takes the water 

 from the large canal, and it passes along through the smaller 

 canals in his grounds the length of time that is allowed him, 

 and then the next man takes it. It is so arranged that each 

 man shall have enough for the particular crop that he raises. 

 Nothing but the most perfect cooperation, under a rigid system, 

 could possibly control that thing, among so many people, and 

 with so many interests, when we consider what human nature 

 is ; — and I have no doubt there is quite as much human nature 



