CHAPTER II. 

 THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 



Some; one has spoken of irrigation as the * ' wed- 

 , ding of the sunshine and the rain. ' ' A great 

 a^^ many people hearing the word irrigation 

 experience the same sensations that they do 

 when Madagascar or Wiju is spoken of. They have 

 a feeling that it is something a great distance off — hard 

 to reach — intangible. They read about it as they like 

 to read * ' Arabian Nights " or " Hans Andersen's Fairy 

 Stories, ' ' and it leaves on their minds about the same 

 impressions of wonder, magnificence, and untruth as do 

 the stories named. To them the very word ' * irriga- 

 tion " puts their reasonings to flight, and they imagine 

 that the art of applying water to cultivated lands is 

 some complicated and wonderfully intricate process 

 not easily understood or attained by mortal man. The 

 fa(5l of the matter is, as the author proposes to show 

 in the succeeding chapters, that irrigation is as simple 

 as child's play, and may be accomplished by the most 

 commonplace day laborer in the fields. In enumera- 

 ting a few of the advantages attendant upon irrigating 

 methods, we will cite the fa(5ls that irrigation reclaims 

 arid wastes ; makes a prosperous country ; causes the 

 desert to blossom and overcomes the destrudlive effedf s 

 of the parching southern winds ; insures full crops 

 every season ; improves land at each submergence, and 



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