112 



rage is a monument to the French engineers, while the fortifications 

 along it remind us that it was only a few years ago that the caprice 

 of the Khedive overshadowed the designs of the engineer. The Assint 

 dam follows the general plan of the barrage below Cairo. The design 

 of the dam at Assuan is new in Egypt as well as in the world. 

 It marks the beginning "f a great reservoir system which will ulti- 

 mately control the waters of the Nile and furnish a supplv to every 

 arable district of Egypt. The head ga'es, waste gates, regulators, and 

 bridges of the larger car>als will always be objects of study for irriga- 

 tion engineers of other countries. 



The excellence ot the recent irrigation works of Egypt is beyond 

 question. The fame of the dam at Assuan has been heralded thiough- 

 out the civilized world; but such works are costly. Before the distri- 

 butary systems are perfected the cost of the system supplied by the 

 Assuan reservoir will exceed ^57 pe acre of land irrigated. Such an 

 outlay is not at prei^ent profitable in the United States. It is advisa- 

 ble, neverthel ss, for us to study the larger irrigation works of Egypt, 

 because it may be possible for American engineers to modify these de- 

 signs to suit the needs of irrigation here. Many of the smaller details 

 of construction can be readily introduced. 



The Nile is an easy stream to divide, hence laws for the economical 

 distribution of water ate not so severely tested as they will be on the 

 stream of the arid West. Water is diverted only at the lower end of 

 the Nile, and not from all its ramifying tributaries, as is the case on the 

 Missouri and Colorado. In additi n, Egypt is one of the few countries 

 where the water supply can be made adequate for the needs of all by 

 storage. This will not be possible in the United States except under 

 rare conditions, where the area of irrigable land along a river affording 

 the supply is comparatively limited. In Egypt the demand for land 

 will in a lew years exceed the demand for water. With us the area of 

 irrigable land will ultimately be limited by the water supply. 



The Egyptiiin irrigation law aims to bring about such a distribution 

 of the water of the Nile that the country as a whole will produce the 

 the largest returns and the treasury leceipts be the gieatest. The ir- 

 rigation laws of the Western States of the United States are framed to 

 protect the individual farmer, and not for the purpose of producing 

 revenue. This fumlamental difference in the objects to be attained 

 makes Egypt's admini-trative sj^stem inapplicable to this country. 

 There does not seem to be any reason for changing our policy. On the 

 contrary, it seems wise that our irrigation administration should pro- 

 mote the prosperity of the waer user as far as practicable, so that we 

 may say in the words Ameni, as inscribed on his tomb at Beni Hassan, 

 50 miles above Caio, "And behold, when the inundati' n was great, 

 and the owners of the land b.^came rich thereby, I laid no additional 

 tax upon the fields." 



