. THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 177 



the State lias always exercised this ownership, and in Venice the 

 springs and even the rainfall, so far as it can be stored in res- 

 ervoirs, have been held to be public property. In India, the 

 springs and rainfall are accumulated in reservoirs controlled by 

 the government, and the river systems are also owned by it. Not 

 only this, but the details of the distribution of the water are also 

 directed by government officials. This is made necessary, however, 

 by the utter incapacity of the ignorant inhabitants to manage any- 

 thing for themselves that calls for more than a very low degree 

 of intelligence. Lest, however, it might be urged that govern- 

 ment ownership and supervision is likely to lead to failure, the 

 actual results attained in India may be very properly here cited. 

 During recent years, the British government has spent about sev- 

 enty millions of dollars, in irrigating works, and others are in 

 progress of construction which will require half as much more to 

 complete them. In almost every instance, the investment has 

 been profitably and in some cases enormously so, both in the way 

 of water rent, and in service to the cultivators of the soil. The 

 total annual revenue to the government from the works is more 

 than five millions of dollars, or seven and three-fourths per cent on 

 the cost." 



And so it is that national, state and municipal governments of 

 our own country are brought face to face with a system of irriga- 

 tion so easy of realization, as to only require the application of 

 laws everywhere governing in nature, giving them an opportunity 

 to work out for themselves results at once universal, all pervading 

 and endless in cycles of beneficence. While Great Britain is engaged 

 in India not only in the construction of reservoirs for the storage of 

 the waters of springs and streams, but for gathering in the rains 

 and dews for purposes of irrigation, spending millions annually in 

 creation of works for that purpose, and other millions in keeping 



