116 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



early date, and then it was only another step to supply arti- 

 ficially the needed water. Irrigation was a condition that was 

 indispensable to the settlement of large portions of western 

 America, Australia and South Africa. In meeting these prob- 

 lems during the nineteenth century, the Anglo-Saxon race had 

 its first experience with extensive irrigation. Throughout all 

 the centuries of previous history, the art of irrigation was quite 

 exclusively the possession of Indian, Latin and Mongolian races. 

 It was used extensively by the ancient Chinese, Egyptians, 

 Persians and by the people of India. The Homeric Greeks 

 used small canals in irrigating. In Italy, it was probably as old 

 as the Etruscans. The Romans borrowed the system from the 

 east, and brought it to their country and southern France. The 

 ancient Peruvians also practiced it, and in Spain it dates back 

 to the Iberian life existing under the Roman conquerors. 



Modern Irrigation in Foreign Countries. Irrigation is more 

 or less extensively practiced by all of the great nations of the 

 globe, even in subhumid and humid regions. As a rule, how- 

 ever, the wheat crop is not extensively irrigated, for irrigation 

 is more profitable with other crops. The total area watered 

 runs into millions of acres in most of the European nations. 

 Wheat is frequently irrigated in the Po valley. In Mexico, 

 Argentina and Australia, wheat is irrigated to some extent. 

 Both streams and wells furnish the water. Extensive systems 

 have been planned for Australia, and over 1,000,000 acres could 

 be irrigated in New South Wales alone. Argentina contains 

 large areas which are irreclaimable except by irrigation. The 

 lower valley of the Nile with its delta comprises another great 

 irrigation system, 6,000,000 acres being under cultivation. 

 Egypt is so arid that dry farming is impossible. In 1902 

 British enterprise completed a dam across the Nile at Assuan. 

 It is built of granite, and is 70 feet high, 23 feet wide at the 

 top, 82 feet wide at the bottom, and l 1 /^ miles long. It is the 

 largest irrigation dam in existence, and the reservoir has a 

 storage capacity of over thirty billion cubic feet. The largest 

 increase in irrigated area in recent years has been made in 

 British India, where about 30,000,000 acres have been re- 

 claimed or made secure for cultivation by constructing new sup- 

 ply works. It has been estimated that 80,000,000 acres more 

 can be reclaimed in India, In 1892 over $150,000,000 had been 



