142 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The land lying adjacent to these canals 

 is entitled to the use of the water, the 

 amount being regulated by law. Each dis- 

 trict is under an overseer whose duty it is 

 to see the proper application of the water 

 and that there is no waste. 



Wealthy private individuals have also 

 constructed ditches for their own use, 

 furnishing the water to their tenants; but 

 land contiguous to their canals is entitled 

 to certain water rights even if not belong- 

 ing to the owners of the ditches. Title to 

 the use of water is inherent in the land 

 and each section of land is certain of its 

 water supply. 



When the immense amount of labor in- 

 volved in sinking shafts and connecting 

 them by underground tunnels is considered, 

 together with the fact that only the most 

 primitive methods are yet in vogue, the 

 Anglo-Saxon can but marvel at the patience 

 and industry displayed in the accomplish- 

 ment of such gigantic but necessary tasks. 

 Some sections of Persia, especially those 

 along the natural rivers, could add to their 

 irrigated area by tht- use of storage reser- 

 Toirs; but the greater part of the country 

 has no flood waters to store, the melting 

 snows but serving to keep alive the under- 

 ground streams. Even in this despotic, 

 tyrant-ridden country, it has been found 

 best, nay, necessary to maintain govern- 

 ment supervision of irrigation waters, 

 which is the life blood of the nation. 

 With a loose system of water control, the 

 land would again be desert. 



GUY E. MITCHELL, 

 Sec. Nat. Irri. Ass'n. 



LIKE OUR OWN WEST. 

 The American Southwest is a new 

 country, but it seems there are other 

 countries with conditions very similar. A 

 man who has been traveling in the interests 

 of the West and Southwest is Mr. W. T. 

 Swingle, a special agent of the Department 

 of Agriculture. He has been spending 

 something like eighteen months in the 

 countries of the Mediterranean, and he 

 finds in North Africa conditions of soil and 



climate almost identical with those of the 

 American arid West and Southwest. 

 These countries in which he has traveled 

 being of very ancient civilization, he finds 

 growing there many things which will un- 

 doubtedly prove valuable acquisitions to 

 America. Among other things Mr. Swingle 

 has succeeded in shipping the minute ani- 

 mals which pollinate the Smyrna figs to 

 California fig-growers and establishing 

 these insects in our own country. This is 

 something the Department of Agriculture 

 has been attempting for years, and it now 

 insures the fertilization and production in 

 California of the famous Smyrna fig, the 

 finest fig on the market. 



Mr. Swingle has also selected and shipped 

 from Algeria a large number of date palms 

 to New Mexico, Arizona and California, it 

 being Secretary Wilson' intention to estab- 

 lish an American date industry. He has 

 also procured seed of the scarlet vetch, a 

 legume, which in Algeria grows to a height 

 of seven or eight feet, and also a grass 

 known as halfa, valuable for use in the 

 manufacture of fine book paper. Another 

 legume which is used for plowing under is 

 fenugre which he saw yield as much as 

 twenty tons per acre of green stuff. 



Although much larger, the Sahara closely 

 corrresponds to some of our western desert 

 land. It is being irrigated to some extent 

 by means of artesian wells, which result 

 in oases of considerable size. Under irri- 

 gation and the great heat of the desert 

 enormous yields are obtained. 



Mr. Swingle admires the camel as a 

 beast of great utility and believes it could 

 not but prove a success in certain sections 

 of this country, if introduced under proper 

 conditions. Camels, he says, will live on 

 anything; they will eat scrub, bushes and 

 thorns, and they can carry across the burn- 

 ing desert each from a quarter to a half ton 

 burden. 



At one time Rome controlled all of 

 Northern Africa, and Mr. Swingle observe* 

 that their reservoir systems must have 

 been very efficient, as he found vast ruins 

 of splendid cities, which, with other works, 



