74 



Irrigation and Drainage 



farm laterals. The water is served once each week, on the same 

 day and hour, the amount received being regulated by the amount 

 purchased. The delivery commences on land farthest from the 

 main canal, and each proprietor turns off the water from his lat- 

 eral when he has received the amount paid for, and the next in 

 order is then served. The assessment is made out by November 

 1, and each irrigator is notified of the days and hours when water 

 will be applied to his land. This irrigation is used almost wholly 

 on meadows, and it is stated that the value of land has increased 



Fig. 14. Alpine water-meadows on the south side of the 

 Simplon Pass, Switzerland. 



from $44 to $300 per acre since the development of the irrigation 

 facilities. 



In Switzerland, the mountain streams and rills are used in 

 very many places on meadows, and this has been done so long and 

 continuously on some meadows that very decided ridges have been 

 formed from the sediment moved by the water ; and we were sur- 

 prised to find that, even so high up as the south side of the Sim- 

 plon Pass, meadows are regularly irrigated, even by the waters 



