338 IRRIGATION PRACTICE 



in the duty of water lie rather in the practices of the farmer, 

 who usually feels that the more he irrigates his crops, the 

 greater will be his reward. Every irrigation farmer is 

 something of a water hog. His safety lies in the irrigation 

 canal, especially in the lateral which leads to his farm. 

 One of his main efforts is to secure the largest possible 

 quantity of water for his land. As a consequence, the 

 varying duty of water can ordinarily be correlated with 

 the quantity of water available in various localities. 

 Wherever water is abundant, the duty is low; wherever 

 limited, the duty is high. At the upper end of the canal 

 the duty is less than at the lower end, for the farmer at 

 the head has the first chance and uses all he can get, 

 usually to the detriment of his crop. 



200. Duty of water in Africa. Egyptian irrigation 

 antedates written history. The early Egyptians gave 

 careful attention to the development of a permanent 

 system of irrigation. The modern government of Egypt 

 has likewise given very careful attention to irrigation and 

 some of the largest modern irrigation projects have been 

 constructed in Egypt. 



The climate of Egypt is very arid. According to Sir 

 William Willcox, the average annual rainfall at Alexandria 

 is about 9 inches, at Cairo about 1J^ inchee, and at 

 Assuan practically no rain falls. Under such a dry climate, 

 the water requirements of crops should be very high, 

 and the duty of water very low. As reported by Willcox, 

 during an irrigation season of about seventy-five days, 1 

 second-foot has a duty for cotton and other dry crops of 

 115 acres; for rice, 60 acres. This is not far from the aver- 

 age results obtained in other countries where much more 

 rain falls. Nevertheless, the methods of irrigation prac- 

 tised in Egypt tend to waste considerable portions of 



