METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 149 



Foreign Methods. In China a very primitive 

 way of irrigating is in use. A Chinese farmer's estate 

 is usually a sandy plain with slopes from one end to the 

 other. His first step is to divide it into counterparts by 

 raising low walls or partitions of clay. They are usually 

 a foot and a half thick and two feet high. Where it is 

 difficult to get clay he constructs the wall of the stones 

 he finds in the soil, or of broken bricks and tiles, and 

 stops up the crevices with clay or even mud. Any form 

 of soil excepting sand is used in this manner. He even 

 gathers the ooze bared by the low tide with which to 

 build the walls. In each little compartment he builds a 

 ditch in front of the lower wall, and at the corner of 

 the compartment he lowers the wall somewhat for the 

 water to flow from one check to the next adjoining, very 

 much as is done by the Mexicans. When it rains the 

 compartments fill, and the entire field looks like a lot of 

 panes of glass; the water soaks slowly into the soil and 

 keeps the ground moist enough for agricultural and hor- 

 ticultural .purposes for several months. For the irriga- 

 tion of rice lands, which have to be submerged, the 

 lands are divided into small patches at large levees, so 

 that the appearance is that of a beautiful system of ter- 

 races, near a bountiful supply of water, which is raised 

 to the upper level by chain pump and treadmill process 

 with coolie power. In places where there is a scarcity 

 of water the men and women carry, suspended from a 

 yoke across their shoulders, two large buckets with long 

 spouts, and sprinkle rows of vegetables copiously. Some- 

 times the water for this purpose is carried in buckets a 

 considerable distance. Liquid manure is applied in the 

 same way. 



The irrigation of Egypt is now conducted on a sci- 

 entific basis. The whole country is cut up into canals, 

 and there are immense irrigating works in the .delta, 

 which during the inundations of the Nile require hun- 



