202 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



or early winter has great advantage over ground that 

 has not. This is true when land is fall-plowed, and 

 the water may be applied either by rills or by flooding. 

 Let it be a good deep soaking. Orchardists are gen- 

 erally adopting this plan for their trees, and thus the 

 evil effedls of winter drying are circumvented. 



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 counter- 

 parts by raising low walls or partitions of clay. They 

 are usually a foot and a half thick and two feet high. 

 Where it is difi&cult to get clay he construc5ls 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 com- 

 partment 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 Mex- 

 icans. 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 horticultural purposes for 

 several months. For the irrigation 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 terraces, near a bountiful sup- 

 ply of water, which is raised to the upper level by 

 chain-pump and treadmill process with coolie power. 



