34 AGRICULTURAL EXPLORATIONS IN ALGERIA. 



Til the Mitidja Valley, near Algiers, there is a reservoir which is 

 (•a[)al)le of holdiiio- about 11,340 acre-feet of water. This is sufficient 

 to irrigate 75,000 acres, but the area actually under irrigation is only 

 one-third as large. 



The irrigation works just described are more or less typical. At a 

 number of other places dams are either in actual use or are under con- 

 struction. Algeria has been unfortunate in regard to disasters to her 

 irrioation works. This has tended to create distrust of them among 

 farmers who practice irrigation. There were lean years for ])eople 

 who tried to farm below the canals while new works were building, and 

 the memory of those trying times is still vivid. It seems that in the 

 early days of colonization too nmch land was covered by the irrigation 

 works. Consequently, there are now large uncultivated areas across 

 which the canals and laterals have to be extended in order to reach 

 land that is in crops. 



There is reason to believe, as an eminent authority upon agriculture 

 in Algeria has remarked, that more good might result from the con- 

 struction of series of irrigation works on a small scale, after the fash- 

 ion of the Carthaginian and Roman colonists, than from the building 

 of elaborate engineering works such as have just been described. The 

 peculiar torrential character of Algerian streams and the great quan- 

 tity of silt they carry make them ill adapted to large structures of 

 this kind; but small diversion reservoirs, that atford water only in 

 winter, are a valuable supplement to the natural rainfall, particularly 

 in the drier western part of the coast region. There it is found that 

 one or two irrigations during the winter will very materially increase 

 the yields of cereals and forage crops. Handled thus, with two irriga- 

 tions in winter, an acre of wheat in the Chelitf Valley can sometimes 

 be made to yield 44 bushels. 



The most important direct diversion of water from a stream in 

 Algeria is that on the Chelitf, 15 miles above Orleansville, where 

 the irrig-ating water is taken from the west bank of the river by means 

 of a canal with a capacity of about 50 cubic feet per second. One 

 branch of this canal is carried across the river by a siphon to irrigate 

 the right bank. On the left bank 0,000 acres, and 19,000 acres on 

 the right bank, are irrigated by this canal. The entire system cost 

 about $480,000. Those who use the water are required to construct 

 the secondary canals, pay a rental to the government, and keep the 

 works in repair. Of the 50 cul)ic feet of water per second availalde 

 under this system, 13 only have been subscribed for, on account of 

 the excessively high water rent asked. Similar difficulty in inducing 

 farmers to subscri})e to water at the rates demanded has been encoun- 

 tered elsewhere in the colony. 



In the mountain zone, notably in Great Kabylia, there are many 

 small diversion dams, cheaply constructed in narrow ravines out of 



