64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Irrigation has been practised by successful cultivators from 

 the highest antiquity. Long before Europe was civilized, the 

 waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates were used in this man- 

 ner for agricultural purposes ; and in Mesopotamia, between 

 these two rivers, there were more than 250,000 acres of irri- 

 gated lands, not to mention similar works on the grandest 

 scale in China, India, the Assyrian empire, Nineveh, Babylon, 

 Egypt, Palestine, and many other countries of great antiquity. 

 Modern nations have also profited largely by irrigation, par- 

 ticularly Lombardy, Tuscany, the south of France and Spain. 



I am not prepared to say whether, under similar circum- 

 stances of soil and value of lands, equally good results might 

 be anticipated here, where the climate is so different, and the 

 value of lands, and of labor in particular, is so much greater. 

 But every one is familiar with the fact that land is fertilized 

 by extraordinary supplies of water. This is too palpable 

 around the margins of every running stream to be denied ; and 

 while we are subject every summer to be visited by severe 

 droughts, no practicable means of guarding against them should 

 be neglected or overlooked. 



The modes of irrigating are as different as the kinds of 

 water used and the principles on which it acts. To attempt 

 to state these modes, and the comparative advantages of each, 

 would require a distinct treatise upon this subject. It is suffi- 

 cient to enumerate the most common of them. Superficial irri- 

 gation was undoubtedly suggested by observing the wonderful 

 effects which arise from the occasional overflow of rivers. The 

 most remarkable example of this natural irrigation of arable 

 lands is to be seen in the annual overflowing of the Nile ; and 

 the main principles which regulate this kind of irrigation are 

 to be found in similar examples, where the overflowing is occa- 

 sional, and the water, instead of being left to stagnate upon the 

 surface, is moving gently over it, and depositing the alluvial 

 matter held in suspension. The most wonderful cases of fer- 

 tility on record arc illustrations of the benefit of these occa- 

 sional irrigations. The richness of the valley of the Mississippi 

 and of the Connecticut is to be ascribed to this source; and 

 these overflowings arc imitated in all attempts to irrigate the 

 surface by conducting water over it, by means of a system of 



