IRRIGATION IN PERU. 



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

 the results of your plunging civilization and to note those American 

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

 erica 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 Span- 

 iards found the land in a high state of cultivation. While naturally 

 in a large part a desert, owing to very scant or no rainfall between 

 the mountains and the coast, the natives by their superior wisdom and 

 foresight of their Incas had brought water immense distances and ren- 

 dered arable vast stretches of country. The ancient irrigation of Peru 

 was very wonderful. 



"Water was conducted by means of canals and subterraneous 

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

 of freestone nicely fitted together with 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 sierras. Passages were cut through 

 rocks (and the Peruvians had no iron tools) and almost impassable 

 mountains were turned; rivers and morassesVere crossed and appa- 

 rently impossible feats of engineering were accomplished simply to se- 

 cure 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 

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

 the empire. Overseers for the government had charge of each dis- 

 trict, and saw that every man received his proper amount, and test 

 the canals were kept in repair. 



"That the government understood the dangers of floods and book 

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

 Notables is the still visible tunnel near Casamasca. While the waters 

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

 the mountains would cause an overflow. To protect the irrigation 

 works and the settlements along the route, a tunnel was excavated in 



