356 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



;^2, 000,000 a year on all classes of irrigation. That year the net 

 revenue return on the first-named works was nearly 7 per cent., and 

 the value of the crops matured by their means was estimated at about 

 88 per cent, of their total cost. The Government of India in 1901 

 appointed an influential Irrigation Commission to tour all over the 

 empire to ascertain how irrigation could be developed, and this 

 Commission recommended a further capital expenditure of not less 

 than ;^29, 000, 000 on new works for the irrigation of 6,500,000 

 acres. The private works in India consist of wells and small 

 channels and reservoirs. 



In Egypt, practically the entire financial position depends upon 

 irrigation. The British engineers employed in its development have 

 raised that country in a comparatively short time from poverty to 

 affluence. It is common knowledge that large works have been 

 constructed there within the last few years. Here, again, investiga- 

 tions have recently been carried out for greatly increased irrigation 

 development, both in Egypt and in the Soudan, upon which it is 

 estimated ;^2 2,000,000 can be spent. * The gross yield of the 

 produce from irrigated land in Egypt is estimated at ^^7 an acre. 



In America, irrigation is being extensively developed, principally 

 in the Western States, which, like many parts of South Africa, 

 are arid. This subject there engages the attention of a highly 

 scientific staff, and the result of its work has been to enable the 

 country to export agricultural produce in large amount, despite the 

 high cost of labour, 



Mr. Hitchcock says :— t " There is no one question now before 

 the people of the United States of greater importance than the 

 conservation of the water supply and the reclamation of the arid 

 lands of the West, and their settlement by men who will actually 

 build homes and create communities." 



In Canada, with a climate much more rigorous than that of 

 South Africa, irrigation is successfully practised, and, recently, 

 the Canadian Pacific Railway Authorities have been furthering new" 

 schemes which wfll bring about 1,000,000 acres under water. 

 Government has given that Railway a large block of land for this 

 purpose, one-quarter of which will be irrigated ; already 500,000- 

 acres of this block have been sold. 



In the dry parts of old countries of Europe, such as Italy, 

 Spain, and France, which all have colder climates than South 

 Africa, irrigation has been found a necessity for agricultural 

 development, and many fine works have recently been constructed. 



Coming to South Africa itself. Cape Colony is inaugurating a 

 more scientific and extensive irrigation policy. Natal has just con- 

 structed the Winterton irrigation scheme, the Transvaal has 

 established an irrigation department, and the Orange River Colony, 

 with its limited means, has been starting irrigation schemes as relief 

 works. 



* Sir William Garstin's Report on the Upper Nile, Cairo, 1904. 

 t " Irrigation in the United States," by F. H. Newell. 



