66 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



HEALTH IN IRRIGATED VALLEYS. 



SOME queer inquiries come to the editor. Among 

 them, to one who sought and found new health 

 and strength in the irrigated valleys of the arid 

 regions, the questions about the healthfulness of irri- 

 gation come with special force. One California 

 land company sends out pamphlets charging that 

 irrigation is unhealthful, in order to sell their own 

 lands, which they claim do not need irrigation. Yet 

 on another page of the same pamphlet they explain 

 how the gardens of the settlers on their lands are sup- 

 plied with water for irrigation by pumping! Inter- 

 ested inquirers will read with satisfaction the follow- 

 ing from the pen of Dr. Henry W. Roby, which we 

 find in the pages of the Kansas Farmer : 



With the proper sanitary precautions all along 

 the line, the effect will be beneficial rather than other- 

 wise. But with careless habits and unsanitary con- 

 ditions, the effect will be the decimation of popula- 

 tion. With an extensive establishment of irrigation 

 works, so that a considerable percentage of a large 

 area is brought under the influence of the system, the 

 atmospheric and magnetic conditions will be radically 

 changed. The prevailing dry atmosphere will be 

 displaced by a prevailing humidity, which will have 

 special effect on the human system. Those cases of 

 bronchial and pulmonary catarrhs, with incipient 

 consumption, which heretofore have found asylum 

 and sanitarium on our Western plains, will probably 

 need to ' move on ' to some dryer place. But as 

 drought has its disease-breeding tendency, as well as 

 humidity, it will but work an exchange of compli- 

 ments. 



Clean, pure water is never unwholesome or danger- 

 ous to health. Millions of people live long and well 

 on the water or close beside it, and they show as good 

 health records as those who live remote from water. 

 But let the water in lake, river, pond, creek or pool 

 become stagnant and filled with dead and decaying 

 animal and vegetable matter, and then disease and 

 death come marching in. With a good, clean and 

 well-kept pond on every farm, only beneficial effects 

 may be expected. But let the pond become stagnant, 

 and dump into it all the dead cats and dogs and 

 chickens ; all the old shoes and hoopskirts and other 

 rubbish that accumulate about the place; let the 

 pump get out of order and remain so until tire hot 

 sun evaporates nearly or all the water in the pond ; 

 let leaves and weeds and grass rot in the shallow 

 basin, and death will claim its own. The grinning 

 skeleton on the pale horse will thrust in his big 

 scythe and reap the dread harvest that your McCor- 

 mick reaper has passed by and left untouched. Let 

 your cows and horses and pigs and chickens wade 

 into and trample your pond and drop manure all 

 about its margin to putrefy and reek in the hot sun, 

 and a coffin will not come amiss among -the family 

 supplies. If you allow your barn-yards and privies 

 and cesspools to drain, or in the rainy season wash 

 into your ponds, then you should have your doctor 

 and undertaker employed by the year. If you will 

 keep your pond full of living water, and keep it in 

 motion by keeping the pumps going, filling the pond 

 at one side while it overflows at the other, and see to 

 it that no refuse from house or barn, no rubbish, no 

 dead animals or leaves or grass foul the pool, you 

 can hang the American flag over your lakelet and 

 raise the shout of victory. 



Probably the best countries in the world in which 



to study the relations of irrigation to health are 

 Egypt, India and the Island of Ceylon, -though the 

 empires of China and Persia have spent mints of 

 money on irrigation, but have no mortuary records. 



The Nile valley swarms with a dense population, 

 but the living water of the Nile on all the water 

 meadows of Egypt and in all its aqueducts and 

 ditches brings only the rose tints of health to its in- 

 habitants. 



The vast rice fields of India, flooded from the In- 

 dus, the Ganges and Brahmapootra and many other 

 great rivers, are only unsalubrious when they receive 

 the offal and excreta of towns and cities or other 

 dense centers of population. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, the most careful and vol- 

 uminous writer on Ceylon, where the most gigantic 

 irrigation works in the world, in the way of ponds, 

 pools, tanks and lakes, have been erected and main- 

 tained for hundreds of years, tells us that round 

 about all the great tanks, some of them many miles 

 in extent, and filled from rushing rivers and moun- 

 tain streams, the highest degree of health prevails. 

 He says : "The vast, level plains, whose stagnant 

 waters are made available for the cultivation of rice, 

 are seldom or never productive of disease.'' It is 

 even believed that deadly air is deprived of its poison 

 in passing over an expanse of still water. 



LIGHTNING STATISTICS. 



Recent researches by the U. S. Weather Bureau 

 lead to the announcement that for the period of five 

 years 1883-87 the number of deaths in the United 

 States by lightning reached 1,030, a yearly average 

 of 206. In 1890 the number was 120; 1891, 203- 1892, 

 251 ; and in 1893, 209. From 1885 to 1892, inclusive, 

 the number of fires caused by lightning was 3,516, 

 involving a loss of $12,663,835. Most of these losses 

 occurred east of the Rocky mountains. During nine 

 years ending with 1892, 2,335 barns, 104 churches and 

 664 dwellings were struck by lightning in the United 

 States. It is of interest to note that of the 1,921 fires 

 caused by lightning during the years 1890-91-92, only 

 one occurred in California; and of the $5,781,310 lost 

 by such fires, only $2,000 is credited to California. 

 With regard to the likelihood of trees being struck, 

 the oak is most liable and the beech least in danger 

 of being hit by lightning. Representing the fre- 

 quency with which the beech is struck by 1, the pine 

 would be represented by 15, the general average of 

 other trees 40, and the oak 54. A belief prevails 

 quite largely among farmers that it is cheaper to in- 

 sure against lightning with some of the reputable 

 insurance companies than to seek protection by 

 mechanical appliances. The researches of the 

 Weather Bureau do not confirm this view. Besides 

 the losses by fire, which might or might not in a given 

 case be made good by the insurance companies, 

 there remains the loss of life, which cannot be thus 

 compensated. In brief, then, the best authority we 

 have on this subject recommends the use of light- 

 ning rods as a measure of protection, though of course 

 absolute immunity cannot be guaranteed in this or 

 any other way. But good rods, properly erected and 

 kept in repair, are found to afford a large measure 

 of protection against lightning. In this connection 

 it may be of interest to cite the result of investiga- 

 tions made in Belgium by Evrard and Lambotte, and 

 published in 1891 in Ciel et Terre (Heaven and 

 Earth). 



