446 IRRIGATION PRACTICE 



on the vast Mesopotamian plains, when the first records 

 were laid aside for our use in the latest day. Hammurabi, 

 a contemporary of Abraham, built a great and wonderful 

 canal by which the desert was made into gardens, and an 

 elaborate system of irrigation covered the Babylonian 

 plain, under which grain returned 300-fold. These mighty 

 structures fell into disuse and decay as the power of the 



FIG. 168. Sagebrush land. 



ruling nation receded from Babylon, but the remains of 

 the canals are visible today, and the fertile soil is as ready 

 as ever to respond to the touch of water. Moreover, the 

 recently unearthed codes of laws concerning the use of 

 irrigation water prove a degree of irrigation refinement 

 scarcely ever surpassed. 



In Persia, India, Ceylon, China, Syria, Palestine, and 

 practically every country of high antiquity, irrigation has 

 been practised, without cessation, since the beginnings of 



