CHAPTER IX 



SUPPLYING WATER FOR IRRIGATION 



' IT is not the purpose in this chapter, nor has it 

 been the purpose in this work, to discuss the larger 

 questions of water supply for irrigation. These are 

 quite purely engineering problems, involving a mass 

 of detail and technicality which concern the agricul- 

 turist only in the final results which they bring to 

 him ; hence, he is interested in them only in a 

 general way. 



We shall aim, therefore, in dealing with the supply 

 of water to whole communities for purposes of irri- 

 gation, to present only a general idea of the systems 

 which have been evolved and adopted under the 

 varying conditions of different countries and climates, 

 reserving the main part of the chapter for the dis- 

 cussion in detail of the cases where water is supplied 

 by individual effort for individual use. 



DIVERTING RIVER WATERS 



By far the most general method of supplying water for the 

 use of large sections of country is to throw a dam across a stream, 

 and divert from the channel a portion of the river water, 

 leading it out into the district to be watered through canals 

 provided for the purpose. 



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