THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XV . 



CHICAGO, JUNE, 1901. 



NO. 9 



__ , In no country in the world has 



Extensive 

 Irrigation agriculture ever attained to 



the comparative dignity found 

 in Peru by the Spanish conqueror?. Agri- 

 culture is admitted to be the backbone 

 of the United States, and statesmen and 

 politicians, especially at election times, 

 manifest great friendliness and affection 

 for the farmers; but the ancient Peru- 

 vians, nobles and plebians alike, were 

 all actual tillers of the soil, The Inca 

 himself did not disdain to set the ex- 

 ample, and each season on a certain day, 

 attended by his court, the monarch turned 

 up the fresh earth with a golden plow. 



Ancient Peru included a large part of 

 Chili, and husbandry was pursued by the 

 Indians on principles truly scientific. Agri- 

 culture was the basis of the political insti- 

 tutions; and remarkable provisions existed 

 for the distribution of the land in equal 

 shares among the people. Government 

 assistance rendered productive every acre 

 of available land. Much of the country 

 was arid, and to reclaim this the Incas con- 

 structed reservoirs and canals on a magni- 

 ficent scale. Prescott, in his ''Conquest 

 of Peru," describes irrigation works of 

 splendid proportions and fine efficiency. 

 Some of the canals were of great length, 

 carrying water to the coast valleys from 

 mountain reservoirs hundreds of miles 

 distant. He mentions one canal in parti- 

 cula r as nearly five hundred miles long. 

 The building of these long aqued ucts called 

 for some remarkable engineering, the re- 

 sults of which in many places are plainly 

 visible today. 



These works of the Incas, however, were 

 -e stroyed or suffered to decay by the Span- 



iards, whose desire was only for gold. 

 Nevertheless, fhere yet remain a few sec- 

 tions under the ancient irrigation. A re- 

 cent consular report describes several val- 

 leys teeming with tropical luxuriance, sit- 

 uated between parching deserts, irrigated 

 by water flowing through the old water- 

 courses of the Incas, but coming from un- 

 known distances. 



Under the ancient order, the greatest 

 care was exercised that every occupant of 

 the land should receive his share of water. 

 The quantity allotted to each tract of land 

 was prescribed by law, and royal overseers 

 superintended the distribution and saw 

 that it was faithfully applied. There was 

 no waste and there wa no speculation in 

 water nor over- appropriation, and there 

 was no conflict of water rights. Although 

 the Peruvians probably did not enjoy some 

 of the privileges of the irrigators of the 

 United States, they also doubtless escaped 

 many of the vexations. 



Several of the Western papers 

 have sounded the note of warn- 

 ing in the matter of the waste of artesian 

 water supply. Flowing or artesian well 

 all receive their supplies from vast under' 

 ground reservoirs, the same reservoir sup- 

 plying many wells. During the past two 

 years thousands of new wells have been 

 bored, tapping these underground reser- 

 voirs, and complaint is now made that 

 wells are allowed to flow on even at times 

 when no use is made of the water. 



The result is that the underground re- 

 servoirs are becoming diminished in vol- 

 ume, and wells which flowed freely a few 

 years ago have now no water. The good 

 advice is given that legislatures enact laws 



waste of 

 Water. 



