IRRIGATION IN PERU. 



By GUY E. MITCHELL, Secretary National Irrigation Association. 



Senor Ramon Estacia, who is a visitor to this country from Peru, 

 can talk very interestingly about his home under the Equator, the 

 land of the Incas and associated with Pizarro and his Spanish Con- 

 quistadores. "I am in the United States," said Senor Estacia, "to 

 study the results of your plunging civilization and to note those Ameri- 

 can inventions which would help us in my country. The discovery of 

 America destroyed Peru as it did Mexico. The Peru of today is a 

 small part of the ancient empire. At the time of the Conquest, the 

 Spaniards found the land in a high state of cultivation. While natc 

 urally in large part a desert, owing to very scant or no rainfall be- 

 tween the mountains and the coast, the natives by the superior wis- 

 dom and foresight of their Incas had brought water immense distances 

 and rendered arable vast stretches of country. The ancient irrigation 

 of Peru was very wonderful. 



"Water was conducted by means of canals and subterraneous aque- 

 ducts executed on a grand scale. They were built of large slabs of 

 freestone nicely fitted together without cement. The water supply 

 came from some elevated lake or natural reservoir in the heart of the 

 mountains and was fed at intervals by other basins which lay on the 

 route along the slopes of the Sierra. Passages were cut through rock 

 {and the Peruvians had no iron tools) almost impassable mountains 

 were turned: rivers and morasses were crossed and apparently impos- 

 sible feats of engineering were accomplished simply to secure water 

 for the irrigation of fields and gardens. Some of these canals were 

 very long. That of Condesuyu was between 400 and 500 miles in 

 length. 



" By latent ducts or sluices, the life-giving fluid was led to the 

 tillable lands along the line of the canals. In some instances the land 

 was flooded, while in others the water was made to run in furrows be- 

 tween the rows of growing maize, tobacco and other crops. Each oc- 

 cupant of land was allowed a certain quantity of water by the law of 

 Empire. Overseers for the government had charge of each district 

 and saw that every man received his proper amount, and that the 

 canals were kept in repair. 



' ' That the government understood the danger of floods and took 

 steps to prevent them is shown by some of the works still extant 

 Notable is the still visible tunnel near Casamasca. While the waters of 

 this lake were used for irrigation, the heavy rains and melting snows 



