IRRIGATION IN OLD SPAIN. 



LARGE AREAS ARTIFICIALLY WATERED. 



NATIONAL IRRIGATION ASSOCIATION. 



The most prosperous agricultural provinces of Old Spain are the two in which 

 the soil is probably the poorest in the Kingdoir, But the valleys of both provinces 

 are thickly seamed with irrigation canals and the slopes are carefully terraced for 

 cultivation. This explains the paradox. 



A very laree proportion of Spain's cultivated area is under irrigation. Almost 

 all the vegetables and garden fruits, lemons, oranges, and rice are grown by irrigation, 

 while the grains, vine, and olives are chiefly dry farmed. Supplemental irrigation is 

 practiced, irrigated crops being grown alongside of non-irrigated. Ancient and mod- 

 ern methods of irrigation seem to go along almost hand in hand. Simple water 

 wheels are in common use to obtain water from wells, the power employed being a 

 horse, and the method of conveyance small buckets, after the ancient Egyptian 

 fashion. On the other hand many artesian wells have been sunk for irrigation, and 

 modern wind-mills are coming into use. 



ROMAN AND MOORISH WORKS. 



The total irrisated area of Spain is nearly 3,000,000 acres, and some of this com- 

 prises systems of great age and of expensive construction. In Valencia and Cata- 

 lonia the water used is derived from swift mountain streams whence it is conveyed 

 by long canals or acequias along the mountain sides or by lofty acqueducts to the 

 fields on which it is to be used. Some large storage reservoirs called pantanos have 

 been c mstructed, feeding a dense network of canals distributed over broad plains. 

 Many of the old irrigation works, such for example as those of the plains of Tara- 

 gona, date from the time of the Romans, and many others from the Moorish period, 

 while new ones are being laid out at the present day. 



POPULOUS UNDER IRRIGATION. 



The effect of this irrigation is shown by the significant fact that the irrigated 

 portion of the province of Murcia has a population of 1631 per square mile as agtinst 

 only 101 per square mile from the entire province while Orihuela has a population of 

 of 767 per square mile as against 194 from the whole province. This shows the ac- 

 complishment of irrigation in a humid region. Of course in our own territory the 

 difference in population between many irrigated and non-irrigated sections is far 

 greater and might be as 1 to 100 if not 1 to 1,000. 



When the great progress being made in irrigation in other countries is con>idered 

 and it is remembered that the work has scarcely begun in the United States where 

 tens of millions of acres lie waiting for reclamation, it must be acknowledged that 

 halt i he productive capacity of the world has not yet been reached. 



