IRRIGATION. 



GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION. 

 In considering the subject of irrigation 

 as a function of government, we must first 

 briefly review the facts and conditions 

 that have given rise to the practice of irri- 

 gation. 



From time immemorial those agricult- 

 ural sections, which have depended on 

 the natural rainfall for the supply of water 

 required to raise their crops, have been 

 subject to fluctuation between the greatest 

 extremes of prosperity and adversity, 

 owing to the great success or total failure 

 of agricultural crops. 



Very early in history men sought to pro- 

 vide against the famine produced by the 

 failure of the natural water supply, or lack 

 of rain. So long ago as the time when 

 Egypt was ruled by a son of Israel, whose 

 interpretation of Pharaoh's dream pre- 

 vented famine in the land, rulers have 

 sought to protect themselves and their 

 people against the uncertainty and prob- 

 able disaster resulting from absolute de- 

 pendence on the rainfall for the needs of 

 the agricultural crop. 



While the valley of the Nile is one of 

 the most ancient as well as fruitful sites 

 for agricultural industry, and while it has 

 not wholly depended on rainfall for its fer- 

 tility and productiveness, it did not in 

 ancient times attain its period of highest 

 production. 



It remained for the British government, 

 which is in control in Egypt to construct, 

 during the closing years of the nineteenth 

 century, the great dam at Assouan, on the 

 Nile, the chief purpose of which is to hold 

 back and store the flood waters that they 

 might be available during the dry seasons. 



This great dam is the largest and most 

 expensive irrigation work that has ever 

 been constructed, and it is estimated that 

 the additional land brought under cultiva- 

 tion will return to the government from 



the outset reaaonable interest on the out- 

 lay, and eventually repay them the entire 

 cost of construction. 



For several reasons the accomplishment 

 of this work could never have been real- 

 ized by private capital. 



This work was constructed across a navi- 

 gable river, over which the government 

 only had control, and while locks had been 

 built for the passage of vessels, the work- 

 ing of these impediments to navigation 

 could be practicable only when in the 

 hands of the government. 



The plains of Northern India, a com- 

 paratively few years ago, showed to the 

 British government the crying need of 

 practical and adequate systems of irriga- 

 tion. 



For more than two thousand years the 

 natives of India have endeavored, when the 

 rainfall failed, to irrigate from numberless 

 wells and small reservoirs, but here the 

 means at hand were so insufficient for the 

 area to be treated and the population to be 

 supported, that famine was not uncommon. 



It remained for the British government 

 to adopt methods of- irrigation on a sys- 

 tematic and adequate scale. 



The first English irrigation works in 

 India were undertaken by private parties 

 and were failures financially. 



The great plains of Northern India 

 have an annual rainfall of from 25 to 30 

 inches, which seems quite sufficient for 

 the wheat and even the upland varieties of 

 rice which are cultivated on these lands. 

 But while the annual rainfall may be 30 

 inches, three-fourths of it may fall in a 

 single night, thus either destroying the 

 crops or running off so quickly that no use 

 can be made of it. So the British gov- 

 ernment, by a eyitem of canals and 

 ditches, dams and reservoir?, has saved or 

 used this great rainfall, thus making it a 

 blessing where before it was an injury. 



