Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 6. 3 



I put forward the results gained up to the present in the 

 hope that they will help in the discussion of the thesis 

 which Prof. Elliot Smith is maintaining. 



The method of cultivating the soil by means of 

 terraces constitutes one of the most remarkable ex- 

 amples of the gigantic amount of labour which can be 

 expended by communities of human beings in order to 

 procure food. By means of retaining walls, generally of 

 stone, and with earth often laboriously transported from 

 elsewhere, huge staircases of fields are made upon the sides 

 of mountains ; and a teeming population is supported 

 in places where otherwise life would be difficult. These 

 terraces are generally supplied with water, which is 

 often brought from a distance ; and some peoples in the 

 past have, as will be shown, performed stupendous feats in 

 the construction of irrigation systems, and have displayed 

 an astonishing knowledge of hydraulics. 



The method of exposition adopted will be mainly by 

 means of quotations, for one of my aims is to lay stress 

 upon the intense astonishment expressed by travellers who 

 have examined systems of cultivation by means of irri- 

 gated terraces. 



The survey will begin with Europe and will then work 

 eastward through the Mediterranean, Then we shall 

 proceed by way of Africa to Arabia, India, China, Japan, 

 and thence right across the Pacific to America. 



Terraced cultivation was once practised in Great 

 Britain. It is mentioned by Sir Laurence Gomme 1 in a 

 work in which will be found a discussion of the terrace- 

 cultivation of Britain and the problems arising out of its 

 existence there. Sir Laurence Gomme gives accounts of 

 terraced cultivation in Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, 

 Sussex, Bedford, Herts (and between Cambridge and 



1 "The Village Community." New York, 1890, pp. 72, 75-95. 



