IRRIGATION IN CHINA. 



BY M. R. JEFFERDS, C. E. 



Since the year 2627 B. C. ten years after the accession to the 

 throne of Hoangti or 4523 years ago, the Chinese are known to have 

 irrigated their lands for agriecltural purposes. 



Small pla.ts of land of from two mow upwards (a mow is one-sixth 

 of an American acre), were made level and ditches put through and 

 around them in such a manner that when the ground was wet enough 

 the surplus water could be let into the adjoining patch, which, as a 

 general thing would be from six inches to one foot below the level of 

 the first. Thus through the great plain of China patches or strips of 

 land may be seen, one a trifle above the other, made so artificially for 

 the purpose of utilizing a single water course to the greatest possible 

 advantage. Archimedian pumps are used in some places to raise the 

 water from the creeks and rivers, in other places aud to a greater ex 

 tent, troughs about fifteen inches wide, with four inch sides, are used 

 At each end of these troughs there is a revolving shaft with ratchet 

 wheels, over which pass an endless belt, with conveyors or buckets 

 about a Chinese foot (fourteen inches) apart. The shaft of the upper 

 ratchet wheel is attached to an upright shaft, which is made to re- 

 volve by animal power, buffaloes being used. 



The most common way of raising water for irrigating purposes, 

 however, is by hand. Two children are placed on the bank of a stream 

 each with a rope about five feet long; one end of each of these ropes 

 is attached to a bucket of about four gallons capacity. The bubket is 

 dropped into the water and filled; then with a horizontal pull on each 

 side it is raised to the distributing tank and emptied. 



I have frequently seen two girls thus at work raise from sixty to 

 eighty gallons of water per minute. Passing along the various water 

 courses (and here I may say that all of the water courses are fre- 

 quented by sampanc a sampan is a small boat, a trifle larger than our 

 skiff) and the streams that are large enough, by junks that are used 

 for the purpose of transporting materials to and from the interior the 

 same as we send produce by wagon (there are no wagon roads in 

 the country), there may be seen in the dry season hundreds of boys 

 and girls at work from early morn until dewy eve raising the water to 

 the irrigating ditches, which water could just as well and better, too, 

 be raised by wind if they understood our methods of utilizing that kind 

 of a motor. In mountainous districts, of course, they can and do di- 

 vert the course of the streams into the irrigating ditches by making 



