318 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



the banks of the Nile, from the sea to the cataracts, 

 their situation being higher, and consequently the diffi- 

 culty of raising the water being greater, in the upper 

 portions of the stream. When the grain-crops, or the 

 saffron, melons, sugar-canes, &c., need refreshment, a 

 plug is taken out from the bottom of the cistern, and 

 the water which gushes out is guided from one rill to 

 another by persons whose office it is to manage the 

 flooding of the ground. 



Sometimes the water is merely raised by wicker 

 baskets, lined with leather. Each basket is managed 

 by two men, and is held by cords between them. 

 Lowering and filling the basket at the river, they 

 swing it over the banks into the canal, which conveys 

 it at once to the land requiring water. 



In Bengal the fields are diligently watered, or they 

 would yield little produce. Wells are dug in the highest 

 parts, and by means of bullocks, and a rope over a 

 pulley, water is raised in buckets, and carried in small 

 channels to every part of the field. Without this dili- 

 gent watering of the soil in hot countries, rice, which 

 furnishes food to the greater part of the human race, 

 could not be cultivated. Accordingly, over the vast 

 region of Southern Africa, the irrigation of the land 

 by means of rivers, brooks, lakes, and wells, is a labour 

 essential to human life. A machine similar to the 

 Persian wheel is used in China for raising water. 



In Southern Europe, also, irrigation is extensively 

 carried on. In Italy, especially on the banks of the 

 Po, it was practised long before the time of Virgil, and 

 is zealously continued to this day. The waters of all 

 the chief rivers of Northern Italy, as well as of 

 numerous minor streams, are thus employed. From 

 Venice to Turin the entire country is said to be one 

 great water-meadow, for the watering is by no means 

 confined to grass-lands, but is conveyed into the 

 hollows between the ridges in corn-lands, is distributed 

 over the low-lands, where rice is cultivated aud is 



