82 Irrigation and Drainage 



actually irrigated is said not to exceed 3,000 acres, but provision 

 is being made under government aid for the irrigation of 38,000 

 acres. In South Australia, there are about 5,000 acres now under 

 irrigation, and a company has been organized for the develop- 

 ment of an irrigation system on the Murray River, to place under 

 ditch 200,000 acres. Up to June, 1891, the government had sunk 

 15 artesian wells, 8 of which are flowing and yielding from 8,228 

 to 3,000,000 gallons in 24 hours. These are in Queensland, and 

 in the same region there are 86 private artesian flowing wells. 



In China, irrigation has a very extended and general distri- 

 bution. The great canal systems are laid out primarily for 

 transportation, but are used jointly and generally for irrigation 

 as well. It is said the most scrupulous care is taken to save and 

 utilize every source of water in cultivation ; and in southern and 

 central China it is estimated than an acre of land is made to sup- 

 port from three to five persons. 



In the provinces of Ningpo, Fo-Kien and Shanghai, the water 

 is generally taken from small ditches led out from the streams or 

 larger canals, or they are fed from springs in the hilly country. 

 It is said that in very many parts almost every farm is supplied 

 from canals or shallow laterals, which are 2 or 3 miles long 

 and from 10 to 30 feet wide, leading out at right angles from the 

 main canals, often from 200 to 400 feet apart. It se'ems, from the 

 written accounts, that a large part of the water used by the gar- 

 deners, and even on the small but numerous rice fields, is raised 

 out of the canals and streams or ponds by a species of chain 

 or rope pump, worked either by hand or by oxen, and in the 

 irrigation season, when water is needed, they are run at night 

 as well as day. It is even said that water for irrigating is carried 

 considerable distances at times and places, in buckets on a yoke 

 placed on the shoulders of men. 



In the province of Fo-Kien, where the rainfall is both quite 

 large and well distributed, irrigation is still practiced, but as a 

 means of insuring larger yields rather than a necessity. 



In Japan, as well as in China, irrigation is, and has been from 

 time immemorial, extensively practiced, and it is estimated that not 

 less than two- thirds of the 12,500,000 acres of land under culti- 



