'190 [Assembly 



IRRIGATION. 



BY S. VAN WYCK 



Irrigation is, in its great feature the reverse of draining, in 

 tillage this is used by farmers to convey or lead water on land 

 that is deficient in moisture, or has not enough in ordinary sea- 

 sons for the healthful growth and maturity of plants. Not that 

 in common seasons good land well tilled would not produce 

 moderately good crops without a supply of moisture by artificial 

 means, beyond the supplies of nature, but with this it produces 

 more abundant and perfect crops. The system of irrigating dry 

 lands is as old as the earliest records of history. The Israelites 

 made use of it and considered land at that day, as barren and 

 desolate without it. The soils of many oriental nations were of 

 a similar character and are to this day. The sandy soils of Ara- 

 bia, Egypt, the English East Indies, and of China, the peopla are 

 obliged to irrigate a large portion of their lands to obtain any- 

 thing like good or even tolerable crops from them, and ever have 

 done. Dr. Shaw, in his book of travels in the East, a work of 

 reputation, says : " The following is the modern mode of raising 

 and using the water of the Nile for the purpose of irrigation in 

 Egypt. Such vegetable products as require more moisture than 

 what is occasioned by the annual inundations of the Nile, are 

 refreshed by water that is drawn at certain times out of the river, 

 and lodged in large cisterns made for that purpose. The screw 

 of Archimedes seems to have been the instrument formerly made 

 use of for that purpose, though at present the inhabitants either 

 supply themselves with various kinds of leather buckets, or else 

 with a sJciah, as they call the Persian wheel, w^hich is the most 

 useful and generally employed machine. Engines and contri- 

 vances of both these kinds are placed all along the banks of the 

 Nile from the sea to the cataracts, their, situation being higher, 

 and consequently the difficulty of raising the water being greater 

 as we advance up the river." Dr. Clarke, another eminent 

 traveller and writer, and later than Dr. Shaw, says: " A machine 

 similar to the Persian wheel is still employed in China by the 

 cultivators for the purposes of irrigation. The early employment 

 of irrigation by the Egyptians. and Chinese, was most likely the 



