THE DESTRUCTION OF SZEGEDIN. 43 



to prove that the man who irrigates his land gains 

 from 80 to 100 per cent over his neighbour who 

 neglects this obvious duty. 



General Tiirr, speaking on " Canalisation and Irri- 

 gation " at Buda-Pesth, in April of last year, says : 

 "The irrigation as used by the Bulgarian gardeners 

 is worth notice. They are clever enough to draw out 

 of an acre a revenue of from 400 to 500 florins. . . . 

 A man named Szemzo, who owns land near the 

 Francis Canal, now receives a rental of 80 to 120 

 florins per acre from Bulgarians, whereas formerly he 

 received only 10 florins per acre." The Bulgarians, 

 it must be observed, are the market -gardeners of 

 Hungary. In the suburbs of almost every town 

 colonies of these people have established themselves, 

 especially where there is a river or a canal ; and by 

 the aid of a very simple mechanism of their own 

 invention, they elevate the water, and throw it over 

 the ground, producing thereby enormous crops of 

 vegetables. 



These economic results are apart from the special 

 question before us. With regard to future inunda- 

 tions of the Hungarian rivers, I fear the " forecast " 

 is by no means reassuring. Engineers have stated 

 most emphatically that Buda-Pesth itself is endan- 

 gered by the present system of rectifying the Danube 

 just above and below Pesth. M. Eevy, in his 

 " Eeport on the Danube at Buda-Pesth," mentions 

 that the river has in fact divided itself into branches 



