Irrigation in America 87 



gin of this island, 21 to 42 feet above ocean level, in the last 12 

 years, and four of them are said to yield water enough for a city 

 of 165,000 inhabitants. 



In the island of Java, too, irrigation is extensively practiced, 

 and regarding the island of Lombock, still to the east of Java, 

 Mr. Arthur R. Wallace writes : "It was here that I first obtained 

 an adequate idea of one of the most wonderful systems of cultiva- 

 tion in the world, equaling all that is related of Chinese industry, 

 and, as far as I know, surpassing, in the labor bestowed on it, 

 any tract of equal extent in the most civilized countries of Europe. 

 I rode through this strange garden utterly amazed, and hardly 

 able to realize the fact that in this remote and little known island, 

 Lombock, from which all Europeans (except a few traders at the 

 port) are jealously excluded, many hundreds of square miles of 

 irregularly undulating country have been so skillfully terraced and 

 leveled and permeated by artificial channels that every portion of 

 it can be irrigated and dried at pleasure." 



Passing, now, to the American continent, we have already 

 referred to its prehistoric irrigation works, and to the extensive 

 and complete systems of irrigation found in South America before 

 the occupancy of that continent by the Spanish and Portuguese, 

 for irrigation was practiced there on both slopes of the great 

 Andean ranges. It must be said, however, to the shame of our 

 boasted civilization, that a very large share of those extensive 

 and valuable improvements have been allowed to pass into ruin, 

 and now must be restored at great cost. 



In the Argentine Republic, lying between 20 and 56 south 

 latitude, irrigation is being practiced in the provinces of Cordoba, 

 San Luis, Mendosa, San Juan, Catamarca, Rioja, Santiago del 

 Istero, Tucman, Salta and Jujuy ; and it is stated that the total 

 area under cultivation by irrigation will exceed 1,759,600 acres. 

 According to Consul Baker's report, works were begun about 

 1882-83 on a number of large dams and canals, using the water 

 of four important rivers, at an estimated cost of $15,280,000, 

 which were expected to have an aggregate capacity equal to about 

 3,020,000 acres. 



While there are large areas in the aggregate irrigated in 



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