CHAPTER XI 

 IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE 



THE records of irrigation practice extend far into the dim 

 past of human affairs. Plato obtained from his ancestor 

 Solon an account of a mythical island named Atlantis, 

 situated in the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules 

 (that is, the Straits of Gibraltar). In the account the island 

 was described in great detail, the part of the description of 

 special interest being that of the irrigation system, which 

 was exceedingly complete in every detail. According to 

 Plato's story, this account had been given to Solon by an 

 Egyptian priest who stated that the fabled island in question 

 existed 10,000 years before his time; and Solon lived 2,500 

 years ago!' 



We know, also, of extensive irrigation works among the 

 Egyptians which were constructed at least twenty centuries 

 before the Christian era. Indeed in Egypt today irrigation 

 is practiced in ways that epitomize the achievements of 

 hundreds of centuries, for land is watered by the slow and 

 laborious process of lifting the water from the Nile with a 

 well-sweep or shadoof, and it is also watered by means of 

 great irrigation projects planned and constructed under the 

 direction of the ablest irrigation engineers England could 

 summon into her service. 



In the Euphrates Valley in Asia are remnants of irrigation 

 systems far antedating any in recorded history. These 

 systems were, in many respects, elaborate and complete. 

 They represented an immense amount of labor, together 

 with a knowledge of engineering problems that we of this 



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