376 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



struction of many great public works, another being commenced as 

 soon as one is completed. 



For the same thing to be practicable in America, it is necessary 

 that the Federal Government, which alone is able to do so, should 

 arrange for the construction of large canals or reservoirs in arid 

 lands, where all kinds of labor are required, and temporary sites for 

 jails or penitentiaries can be obtained at no great cost. It would not 

 be necessary to mass together so many convicts as can be done in 

 India, but the requisite condition appears to be that they be employed 

 sufficiently long in one place to render worth while the construction 

 of safe quarters for them, where they can be securely housed every 

 night. The safe-guarding of criminals is an essential feature of use- 

 fully employing them; and it follows from this that they be not re- 

 quired to work at such a distance from their quarters, as to prevent 

 their going from and returning to them every day. A large reservoir 

 might easily give a few hundred convicts employment for two or 

 three years. Convict labor could thus be employed on large concen- 

 trated works, while smaller or more scattered works would be avail- 

 able for free paid labor. 



The further question of rewarding convicts for good labor is be- 

 yond the scope of this article, which only attempts to show how, 

 when and where convict labor may be usefully and profitably em- 

 ployed. But good use might well be made of the opportunities avail- 

 able for improving the status of a convict, and of holding out to him 

 promises of reward for good conduct and faithful working to orders. 



