264 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



hand and carried in leathern bags to the little patch which they in- 

 tended to cultivate. 



Where the desert extended along the banks of a river, as the Nile 

 or the Euphrates for instance, the water was plentiful. It but need- 

 ed to be applied to the land to procure the crops needed by man. The 

 sculptures of ancient Egypt contain figures of men with a yoke upon 

 their shoulders bearing water pots. This was of course only possible 

 where the water was near at hand. Sculptures of a little later date 

 shows the use of the bucket and lever known as the shadoof by the 

 Arabs the simple well sweep of our older country homes and still 

 used for irrigating in many parts of Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and India. 

 It consists of a pole pivoted upon an upright with a skin bucket fast- 

 ened to one end and a weight upon the other. With this the water 

 can be raised to the height of eight or ten feet into a trough from 

 which it flows into a small tank or surface reservoir. Where the 

 water has to be raised to a great height it is accomplished by a series 

 of shadoofs, one above the other, each depositing the water in a tank 

 immediately above, from which it is again raised eight or ten feet and 

 so on until it is finally on the level of the land sought to be irrigated. 



As civilization progressed, ditches or troughs by easy transition, 

 replaced the man with the bucket as the means of leading the water 

 into land. Ridges a few inches in height were raised around small 

 patches of ground and the water was permitted to run in until the soil 

 was covered when the gap was closed in this square and an opening 

 made in the next. After a long apprenticeship man gradually acqui- 

 red a knowledge of mechanics and the application of the forces of 

 nature to his own ends. Crude water wheels were constructed which 

 were propelled first by human labor and later by oxen, cows, donkeys 

 or camels and finally by the current of streams. 



The need was water! water! water! No matter how laborious the 

 task,, water must be gotten. So by these methods, against over- 

 whelming odds, man's struggle with the forces of nature has continued 

 for untold ages. And today, through the application of the principles 

 discovered by our predecessors in irrigation, we see millions of acres 

 of soil, worthless otherwise, reclaimed and made fruitful. Experience 

 has shown that where the water is under control better and larger 

 crops can be produced than on lands where nature has been most 

 bountiful in furnishing rainfall. In the latter regions, rain often 

 comes at inopportune times and again fails just when most needed by 

 the maturing crop. Failure or partial failure is frequent in the most 

 favored regions; under modern systems of irrigatio.i it is impossible. 



