In bedwork irrigation, which is eminently applicable to level ground, the ground is thrown into beds or ridges. Here the conductor should be led along the highest end or side of the meadow in an inclined plane; should it terminate in theBedwork.meadow, its end should be made to taper when there are no feeders, or to terminate in a feeder. The main drain to carry off the water from the meadow should next be formed. It should be cut in the lowest part of the ground at the lower end or side of the meadow. Its dimensions should be capable of carrying off the whole water used so quickly as to prevent the least stagnation, and discharge it into the river. The next process is the forming of the ground intended for a water-meadow into beds or ridges. That portion of the ground which is to be watered by one conductor should be made into beds to suit the circumstances of that conductor; that is, instead of the beds over the meadow being all reduced to one common level, they should be formed to suit the different swells in the ground, and, should any of these swells be considerable, it will be necessary to give each side of them its respective conductor. The beds should run at or nearly at right angles to the line of the conductor. The breadth of the beds is regulated by the nature of the soil and the supply of water. Tenacious soils and subsoils, with a small supply of water, require beds as narrow as 30 ft. Porous soils and a large supply of water may have beds of 40 ft. The length of the beds is regulated by the supply of water and the fall from the conductor to the main drain. If the beds fall only in one direction longitudinally, their crowns should be made in the middle; but, should they fall laterally as well as longitudinally, as is usually the case, then the crowns should be made towards the upper sides, more or less according to the lateral slope of the ground. The crowns should rise 1 ft. above the adjoining furrows. The beds thus formed should slope in an inclined plane from the conductor to the main drain, that the water may flow equably over them.The beds are watered by “feeders,” that is, channels gradually tapering to the lower extremities, and their crowns cut down, wherever these are placed. The depth of the feeders depends on their width, and the width on their length. A bed 200 yds. in length requires a feeder of 20 in. in width at its junction with the conductor, and it should taper gradually to the extremity, which should be 1 ft. in width. The taper retards the motion of the water, which constantly decreases by overflow as it proceeds, whilst it continues to fill the feeder to the brim. The water overflowing from the feeders down the sides of the beds is received into small drains formed in the furrows between the beds. These small drains discharge themselves into the main drain, and are in every respect the reverse of the feeders. The depth of the small drain at the junction is made about as great as that of the main drain, and it gradually lessens towards the taper to 6 in. in tenacious and to less in porous soils. The depth of the feeders is the same in relation to the conductor. For the more equal distribution of the water over the surface of the beds from the conductor and feeders, small masses, such as stones or solid portions of earth or turf fastened with pins, are placed in them, in order to retard the momentum which the water may have acquired. These “stops,” as they are termed, are generally placed at regular intervals, or rather they should be left where any inequality of the current is observed. Heaps of stones answer very well for stops in the conductor, particularly immediately below the points of junction with the feeders. The small or main drains require no stops. The descent of the water in the feeders will no doubt necessarily increase in rapidity, but the inclination of the beds and the tapering of the feeders should be so adjusted as to counteract the increasing rapidity. The distribution of the water over the whole meadow is regulated by the sluices, which should be placed at the origin of every conductor. By means of these sluices any portion of the meadow that is desired can be watered, whilst the rest remains dry; and alternate watering must be adopted when there is a scarcity of water. All the sluices should be substantially built at first with stones and mortar, to prevent the leakage of water; for, should water from a leak be permitted to find its way into the meadow, that portion of it will stagnate and produce coarse grasses. In a well-formed water-meadow it is as necessary to keep it perfectly dry at one time as it is to place it under water at another. A small sluice placed in the side of the conductor opposite to the meadow, and at the upper end of it, will drain away the leakage that may have escaped from the head sluice.To obtain a complete water-meadow, the ground will often require to be broken up and remodelled. This will no doubt be attended with cost; but it should be considered that the first cost is the least, and remodelling the only way of having a complete water-meadow which will continue for years to give satisfaction. To effect a remodelling when the ground is in stubble, let it be ploughed up, harrowed, and cleaned as in a summer fallow, the levelling-box employed when required, the stuff from the conductors and main drains spread abroad, and the beds ploughed into shape—all operations that can be performed at little expense. The meadow should be ready by August for sowing with one of the mixtures of grass-seeds already given. But though this plan is ultimately better, it is attended with the one great disadvantage that the soft ground cannot be irrigated for two or three years after it is sown with grass-seeds. This can only be avoided where the ground is covered with old turf which will bear to be lifted. On ground in that state a water-meadow may be most perfectly formed. Let the turf be taken off with the spade, and laid carefully aside for relaying. Let the stript ground then be neatly formed with the spade and barrow, into beds varying in breadth and shape according to the nature of the soil and the dip of the ground—the feeders from the conductor and the small drains to the main drain being formed at the same time. Then let the turf be laid down again and beaten firm, when the meadow will be complete at once, and ready for irrigation. This is the most beautiful and most expeditious method of making a complete water-meadow where the ground is not naturally sufficiently level to begin with.The water should be let on, and trial made of the work, whenever it is finished, and the motion of the water regulated by the introduction of a stop in the conductors and feeders where a change in the motion of the current is observed, beginning at the upper end of the meadow. Should the work be finished as directed by August, a good crop of hay may be reaped in the succeeding summer. There are few pieces of land where the natural descent of the ground will not admit of the water being collected a second time, and applied to the irrigation of a second and lower meadow. In such a case the main drain of a watered meadow may form the conductor of the one to be watered, or a new conductor may be formed by a prolongation of the main drain; but either expedient is only advisable where water is scarce. Where it is plentiful, it is better to supply the second meadow directly from the river, or by a continuation of the first main conductor.In the ordinary catch work water-meadow, the water is used over and over again. On the steep sides of valleys the plan is easily and cheaply carried out, and where the whole course of the water is not long the peculiar properties which give itCatchwork.value, though lessened, are not exhausted when it reaches that part of the meadow which it irrigates last. The design of any piece of catchwork will vary with local conditions, but generally it may be stated that it consists in putting each conduit save the first to the double use of a feeder or distributor and of a drain or collector.In upward or subterranean irrigation the water used rises upward through the soil, and is that which under ordinary circumstances would be carried off by the drains. The system has received considerable development in Germany, where theUpward or subterranean.elaborate method invented by Petersen is recommended by many agricultural authorities. In this system the well-fitting earthenware drain-pipes are furnished at intervals with vertical shafts terminating at the surface of the ground in movable caps. Beneath each cap, and near the upper end of the shaft, are a number of vertical slits through which the drainage water which rises passes out into the conduit or trench from which the irrigating streams originate. In the vertical shaft there is first of all a grating which intercepts solid matters, and then, lower down, a central valve which can be opened and closed at pleasure from the top of the shaft. In the ordinary English system of upward or drainage irrigation, ditches are dug all round the field. They act the part of conductors when the land is to be flooded, and of main drains when it is to be laid dry. The water flows from the ditches as conductors into built conduits formed at right angles to them in parallel lines through the fields; it rises upwards in them as high as the surface of the ground, and again subsides through the soil and the conduits into the ditches as main drains, and thence it passes at a lower level either into a stream or other suitable outfall. The ditches may be filled in one or other of several different ways. The water may be drainage-water from lands at a higher level; or it may be water from a neighbouring river; or it may be drainage-water accumulated from a farm and pumped up to the necessary level. But it may also be the drainage-water of the field itself. In this case the mouths of the underground main pipe-drains are stopped up, and the water in them and the secondary drains thus caused to stand back until it has risen sufficiently near the surface. Of course it is necessary to build the mouths of such main drains of very solid masonry, and to construct efficient sluices for the retention of the water in the drains. Irrigation of the kind now under discussion may be practised wherever a command of water can be secured, but the ground must be level. It has been successfully employed in recently drained morasses, which are apt to become too dry in summer. It is suitable for stiffish soils where the subsoil is fairly open, but is less successful in sand. The water used may be turbid or clear, and it acts, not only for moistening the soil, but as manure. For if, as is commonly the case, the water employed be drainage-water from cultivated lands, it is sure to contain a considerable quantity of nitrates, which, not being subject to retention by the soil, would otherwise escape. These coming into contact with the roots of plants during their season of active growth, are utilized as direct nourishment for the vegetation. It is necessaryin upward or subterranean irrigation to send the water on and to take it off very gently, in order to avoid the displacement and loss of the finer particles of the soil which a forcible current would cause.In warping the suspended solid matters are of importance, not merely for any value they may have as manure, but also as a material addition to the ground to be irrigated. The warping which is practised in England is almost exclusively confined toWarping.the overflowing of level ground within tide mark, and is conducted mostly within the districts commanded by estuaries or tidal rivers. The best notion of the process of warping may be gained by sailing up the Trent from the Humber to Gainsborough. Here the banks of the river were constructed centuries ago to protect the land within them from the encroachments of the tide. A great tract of country was thus laid comparatively dry. But while the wisdom of one age thus succeeded in restricting within bounds the tidal water of the river, it was left to the greater wisdom of a succeeding age to improve upon this arrangement by admitting these muddy waters to lay a fresh coat of rich silt on the exhausted soils. The process began more than a century ago, but has become a system in recent times. Large sluices of stone, with strong doors, to be shut when it is wished to exclude the tide, may be seen on both banks of the river, and from these great conduits are carried miles inward through the flat country to the point previously prepared by embankment over which the muddy waters are allowed to spread. These main conduits, being very costly, are constructed for the warping of large adjoining districts, and openings are made at such points as are then undergoing the operation. The mud is deposited and the waters return with the falling tide to the bed of the river. Spring-tides are preferred, and so great is the quantity of mud in these rivers that from 10 to 15 acres have been known to be covered with silt from 1 to 3 ft. in thickness during one spring of ten or twelve tides. Peat-moss of the most sterile character has been by this process covered with soil of the greatest fertility, and swamps which used to be resorted to for leeches are now, by the effects of warping, converted into firm and fertile fields. The art is now so well understood that, by careful attention to the currents, the expert warp farmer can temper his soil as he pleases. When the tide is first admitted the heavier particles, which are pure sand, are first deposited; the second deposit is a mixture of sand and fine mud, which, from its friable texture, forms the most valuable soil; while lastly the pure mud subsides, containing the finest particles of all, and forms a rich but very tenacious soil. The great effort, therefore, of the warp farmer is to get the second or mixed deposit as equally over the whole surface as he can and to prevent the deposit of the last. This he does by keeping the water in constant motion, as the last deposit can only take place when the water is suffered to be still. Three years may be said to be spent in the process, one year warping, one year drying and consolidating, and one year growing the first crop, which is generally seed-hoed in by hand, as the mud at this time is too soft to admit of horse labour.The immediate effect, which is highly beneficial, is the deposition of silt from the tide. To ensure this deposition, it is necessary to surround the field to be warped with a strong embankment, in order to retain the water as the tide recedes. The water is admitted by valved sluices, which open as the tide flows into the field and shut by the pressure of the confined water when the tide recedes. These sluices are placed on as low a level as possible to permit the most turbid water at the bottom of the tide to pass through a channel in the base of the embankment. The silt deposited after warping is exceedingly rich and capable of carrying any species of crop. It may be admitted in so small a quantity as only to act as a manure to arable soil, or in such a large quantity as to form a new soil. This latter acquisition is the principal object of warping, and it excites astonishment to witness how soon a new soil may be formed. From June to September a soil of 3 ft. in depth may be formed under the favourable circumstances of a very dry season and long drought. In winter and in floods warping ceases to be beneficial. In ordinary circumstances on the Trent and Humber a soil from 6 to 16 in. in depth may be obtained and inequalities of 3 ft. filled up. But every tide generally leaves only 1/8 in. of silt, and the field which has only one sluice can only be warped every other tide. The silt, as deposited in each tide, does not mix into a uniform mass, but remains in distinct layers. The water should be made to run completely off and the ditches should become dry before the influx of the next tide, otherwise the silt will not incrust and the tide not have the same effect. Warp soil is of surpassing fertility. The expense of forming canals, embankments and sluices for warping land is from £10 to £20 an acre. A sluice of 6 ft. in height and 8 ft. wide will warp from 60 to 80 acres, according to the distance of the field from the river. The embankments may be from 3 to 7 ft. in height, as the field may stand in regard to the level of the highest tides. After the new land has been left for a year or two in seeds and clover, it produces great crops of wheat and potatoes.Warping is practised only in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, on the estuary of the Humber, and in the neighbourhood of the rivers which flow into it—the Trent, the Ouse and the Don. The silt and mud brought down by these rivers is rich in clay and organic matter, and sometimes when dry contains as much as 1% of nitrogen.
In bedwork irrigation, which is eminently applicable to level ground, the ground is thrown into beds or ridges. Here the conductor should be led along the highest end or side of the meadow in an inclined plane; should it terminate in theBedwork.meadow, its end should be made to taper when there are no feeders, or to terminate in a feeder. The main drain to carry off the water from the meadow should next be formed. It should be cut in the lowest part of the ground at the lower end or side of the meadow. Its dimensions should be capable of carrying off the whole water used so quickly as to prevent the least stagnation, and discharge it into the river. The next process is the forming of the ground intended for a water-meadow into beds or ridges. That portion of the ground which is to be watered by one conductor should be made into beds to suit the circumstances of that conductor; that is, instead of the beds over the meadow being all reduced to one common level, they should be formed to suit the different swells in the ground, and, should any of these swells be considerable, it will be necessary to give each side of them its respective conductor. The beds should run at or nearly at right angles to the line of the conductor. The breadth of the beds is regulated by the nature of the soil and the supply of water. Tenacious soils and subsoils, with a small supply of water, require beds as narrow as 30 ft. Porous soils and a large supply of water may have beds of 40 ft. The length of the beds is regulated by the supply of water and the fall from the conductor to the main drain. If the beds fall only in one direction longitudinally, their crowns should be made in the middle; but, should they fall laterally as well as longitudinally, as is usually the case, then the crowns should be made towards the upper sides, more or less according to the lateral slope of the ground. The crowns should rise 1 ft. above the adjoining furrows. The beds thus formed should slope in an inclined plane from the conductor to the main drain, that the water may flow equably over them.
The beds are watered by “feeders,” that is, channels gradually tapering to the lower extremities, and their crowns cut down, wherever these are placed. The depth of the feeders depends on their width, and the width on their length. A bed 200 yds. in length requires a feeder of 20 in. in width at its junction with the conductor, and it should taper gradually to the extremity, which should be 1 ft. in width. The taper retards the motion of the water, which constantly decreases by overflow as it proceeds, whilst it continues to fill the feeder to the brim. The water overflowing from the feeders down the sides of the beds is received into small drains formed in the furrows between the beds. These small drains discharge themselves into the main drain, and are in every respect the reverse of the feeders. The depth of the small drain at the junction is made about as great as that of the main drain, and it gradually lessens towards the taper to 6 in. in tenacious and to less in porous soils. The depth of the feeders is the same in relation to the conductor. For the more equal distribution of the water over the surface of the beds from the conductor and feeders, small masses, such as stones or solid portions of earth or turf fastened with pins, are placed in them, in order to retard the momentum which the water may have acquired. These “stops,” as they are termed, are generally placed at regular intervals, or rather they should be left where any inequality of the current is observed. Heaps of stones answer very well for stops in the conductor, particularly immediately below the points of junction with the feeders. The small or main drains require no stops. The descent of the water in the feeders will no doubt necessarily increase in rapidity, but the inclination of the beds and the tapering of the feeders should be so adjusted as to counteract the increasing rapidity. The distribution of the water over the whole meadow is regulated by the sluices, which should be placed at the origin of every conductor. By means of these sluices any portion of the meadow that is desired can be watered, whilst the rest remains dry; and alternate watering must be adopted when there is a scarcity of water. All the sluices should be substantially built at first with stones and mortar, to prevent the leakage of water; for, should water from a leak be permitted to find its way into the meadow, that portion of it will stagnate and produce coarse grasses. In a well-formed water-meadow it is as necessary to keep it perfectly dry at one time as it is to place it under water at another. A small sluice placed in the side of the conductor opposite to the meadow, and at the upper end of it, will drain away the leakage that may have escaped from the head sluice.
To obtain a complete water-meadow, the ground will often require to be broken up and remodelled. This will no doubt be attended with cost; but it should be considered that the first cost is the least, and remodelling the only way of having a complete water-meadow which will continue for years to give satisfaction. To effect a remodelling when the ground is in stubble, let it be ploughed up, harrowed, and cleaned as in a summer fallow, the levelling-box employed when required, the stuff from the conductors and main drains spread abroad, and the beds ploughed into shape—all operations that can be performed at little expense. The meadow should be ready by August for sowing with one of the mixtures of grass-seeds already given. But though this plan is ultimately better, it is attended with the one great disadvantage that the soft ground cannot be irrigated for two or three years after it is sown with grass-seeds. This can only be avoided where the ground is covered with old turf which will bear to be lifted. On ground in that state a water-meadow may be most perfectly formed. Let the turf be taken off with the spade, and laid carefully aside for relaying. Let the stript ground then be neatly formed with the spade and barrow, into beds varying in breadth and shape according to the nature of the soil and the dip of the ground—the feeders from the conductor and the small drains to the main drain being formed at the same time. Then let the turf be laid down again and beaten firm, when the meadow will be complete at once, and ready for irrigation. This is the most beautiful and most expeditious method of making a complete water-meadow where the ground is not naturally sufficiently level to begin with.
The water should be let on, and trial made of the work, whenever it is finished, and the motion of the water regulated by the introduction of a stop in the conductors and feeders where a change in the motion of the current is observed, beginning at the upper end of the meadow. Should the work be finished as directed by August, a good crop of hay may be reaped in the succeeding summer. There are few pieces of land where the natural descent of the ground will not admit of the water being collected a second time, and applied to the irrigation of a second and lower meadow. In such a case the main drain of a watered meadow may form the conductor of the one to be watered, or a new conductor may be formed by a prolongation of the main drain; but either expedient is only advisable where water is scarce. Where it is plentiful, it is better to supply the second meadow directly from the river, or by a continuation of the first main conductor.
In the ordinary catch work water-meadow, the water is used over and over again. On the steep sides of valleys the plan is easily and cheaply carried out, and where the whole course of the water is not long the peculiar properties which give itCatchwork.value, though lessened, are not exhausted when it reaches that part of the meadow which it irrigates last. The design of any piece of catchwork will vary with local conditions, but generally it may be stated that it consists in putting each conduit save the first to the double use of a feeder or distributor and of a drain or collector.
In upward or subterranean irrigation the water used rises upward through the soil, and is that which under ordinary circumstances would be carried off by the drains. The system has received considerable development in Germany, where theUpward or subterranean.elaborate method invented by Petersen is recommended by many agricultural authorities. In this system the well-fitting earthenware drain-pipes are furnished at intervals with vertical shafts terminating at the surface of the ground in movable caps. Beneath each cap, and near the upper end of the shaft, are a number of vertical slits through which the drainage water which rises passes out into the conduit or trench from which the irrigating streams originate. In the vertical shaft there is first of all a grating which intercepts solid matters, and then, lower down, a central valve which can be opened and closed at pleasure from the top of the shaft. In the ordinary English system of upward or drainage irrigation, ditches are dug all round the field. They act the part of conductors when the land is to be flooded, and of main drains when it is to be laid dry. The water flows from the ditches as conductors into built conduits formed at right angles to them in parallel lines through the fields; it rises upwards in them as high as the surface of the ground, and again subsides through the soil and the conduits into the ditches as main drains, and thence it passes at a lower level either into a stream or other suitable outfall. The ditches may be filled in one or other of several different ways. The water may be drainage-water from lands at a higher level; or it may be water from a neighbouring river; or it may be drainage-water accumulated from a farm and pumped up to the necessary level. But it may also be the drainage-water of the field itself. In this case the mouths of the underground main pipe-drains are stopped up, and the water in them and the secondary drains thus caused to stand back until it has risen sufficiently near the surface. Of course it is necessary to build the mouths of such main drains of very solid masonry, and to construct efficient sluices for the retention of the water in the drains. Irrigation of the kind now under discussion may be practised wherever a command of water can be secured, but the ground must be level. It has been successfully employed in recently drained morasses, which are apt to become too dry in summer. It is suitable for stiffish soils where the subsoil is fairly open, but is less successful in sand. The water used may be turbid or clear, and it acts, not only for moistening the soil, but as manure. For if, as is commonly the case, the water employed be drainage-water from cultivated lands, it is sure to contain a considerable quantity of nitrates, which, not being subject to retention by the soil, would otherwise escape. These coming into contact with the roots of plants during their season of active growth, are utilized as direct nourishment for the vegetation. It is necessaryin upward or subterranean irrigation to send the water on and to take it off very gently, in order to avoid the displacement and loss of the finer particles of the soil which a forcible current would cause.
In warping the suspended solid matters are of importance, not merely for any value they may have as manure, but also as a material addition to the ground to be irrigated. The warping which is practised in England is almost exclusively confined toWarping.the overflowing of level ground within tide mark, and is conducted mostly within the districts commanded by estuaries or tidal rivers. The best notion of the process of warping may be gained by sailing up the Trent from the Humber to Gainsborough. Here the banks of the river were constructed centuries ago to protect the land within them from the encroachments of the tide. A great tract of country was thus laid comparatively dry. But while the wisdom of one age thus succeeded in restricting within bounds the tidal water of the river, it was left to the greater wisdom of a succeeding age to improve upon this arrangement by admitting these muddy waters to lay a fresh coat of rich silt on the exhausted soils. The process began more than a century ago, but has become a system in recent times. Large sluices of stone, with strong doors, to be shut when it is wished to exclude the tide, may be seen on both banks of the river, and from these great conduits are carried miles inward through the flat country to the point previously prepared by embankment over which the muddy waters are allowed to spread. These main conduits, being very costly, are constructed for the warping of large adjoining districts, and openings are made at such points as are then undergoing the operation. The mud is deposited and the waters return with the falling tide to the bed of the river. Spring-tides are preferred, and so great is the quantity of mud in these rivers that from 10 to 15 acres have been known to be covered with silt from 1 to 3 ft. in thickness during one spring of ten or twelve tides. Peat-moss of the most sterile character has been by this process covered with soil of the greatest fertility, and swamps which used to be resorted to for leeches are now, by the effects of warping, converted into firm and fertile fields. The art is now so well understood that, by careful attention to the currents, the expert warp farmer can temper his soil as he pleases. When the tide is first admitted the heavier particles, which are pure sand, are first deposited; the second deposit is a mixture of sand and fine mud, which, from its friable texture, forms the most valuable soil; while lastly the pure mud subsides, containing the finest particles of all, and forms a rich but very tenacious soil. The great effort, therefore, of the warp farmer is to get the second or mixed deposit as equally over the whole surface as he can and to prevent the deposit of the last. This he does by keeping the water in constant motion, as the last deposit can only take place when the water is suffered to be still. Three years may be said to be spent in the process, one year warping, one year drying and consolidating, and one year growing the first crop, which is generally seed-hoed in by hand, as the mud at this time is too soft to admit of horse labour.
The immediate effect, which is highly beneficial, is the deposition of silt from the tide. To ensure this deposition, it is necessary to surround the field to be warped with a strong embankment, in order to retain the water as the tide recedes. The water is admitted by valved sluices, which open as the tide flows into the field and shut by the pressure of the confined water when the tide recedes. These sluices are placed on as low a level as possible to permit the most turbid water at the bottom of the tide to pass through a channel in the base of the embankment. The silt deposited after warping is exceedingly rich and capable of carrying any species of crop. It may be admitted in so small a quantity as only to act as a manure to arable soil, or in such a large quantity as to form a new soil. This latter acquisition is the principal object of warping, and it excites astonishment to witness how soon a new soil may be formed. From June to September a soil of 3 ft. in depth may be formed under the favourable circumstances of a very dry season and long drought. In winter and in floods warping ceases to be beneficial. In ordinary circumstances on the Trent and Humber a soil from 6 to 16 in. in depth may be obtained and inequalities of 3 ft. filled up. But every tide generally leaves only 1/8 in. of silt, and the field which has only one sluice can only be warped every other tide. The silt, as deposited in each tide, does not mix into a uniform mass, but remains in distinct layers. The water should be made to run completely off and the ditches should become dry before the influx of the next tide, otherwise the silt will not incrust and the tide not have the same effect. Warp soil is of surpassing fertility. The expense of forming canals, embankments and sluices for warping land is from £10 to £20 an acre. A sluice of 6 ft. in height and 8 ft. wide will warp from 60 to 80 acres, according to the distance of the field from the river. The embankments may be from 3 to 7 ft. in height, as the field may stand in regard to the level of the highest tides. After the new land has been left for a year or two in seeds and clover, it produces great crops of wheat and potatoes.
Warping is practised only in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, on the estuary of the Humber, and in the neighbourhood of the rivers which flow into it—the Trent, the Ouse and the Don. The silt and mud brought down by these rivers is rich in clay and organic matter, and sometimes when dry contains as much as 1% of nitrogen.
Constant care is required if a water-meadow is to yield quite satisfactory results. The earliness of the feed, its quantity and its quality will all depend in very great measure upon the proper management of the irrigation. TheManagement and advantages.points which require constant attention are—the perfect freedom of all carriers, feeders and drains from every kind of obstruction, however minute; the state and amount of water in the river or stream, whether it be sufficient to irrigate the whole area properly or only a part of it; the length of time the water should be allowed to remain on the meadow at different periods of the season; the regulation of the depth of the water, its quantity and its rate of flow, in accordance with the temperature and the condition of the herbage; the proper times for the commencing and ending of pasturing and of shutting up for hay; the mechanical condition of the surface of the ground; the cutting out of any very large and coarse plants, as docks; and the improvement of the physical and chemical conditions of the soil by additions to it of sand, silt, loam, chalk, &c.
Whatever may be the command of water, it is unwise to attempt to irrigate too large a surface at once. Even with a river supply fairly constant in level and always abundant, no attempt should be made to force on a larger volume of water than the feeders can properly distribute and the drains adequately remove, or one part of the meadow will be deluged and another stinted. When this inequality of irrigation once occurs, it is likely to increase from the consequent derangement of the feeders and drains. And one result on the herbage will be an irregularity of composition and growth, seriously detrimental to its food-value. The adjustment of the water by means of the sluices is a delicate operation when there is little water and also when there is much; in the latter case the fine earth may be washed away from some parts of the meadow; in the former case, by attempting too much with a limited water current, one may permit the languid streams to deposit their valuable suspended matters instead of carrying them forward to enrich the soil. The water is not to be allowed to remain too long on the ground at a time. The soil must get dry at stated intervals in order that the atmospheric air may come in contact with it and penetrate it. In this way as the water sinks down through the porous subsoil or into the subterranean drains oxygen enters and supplies an element which is needed, not only for the oxidation of organic matters in the earth, but also for the direct and indirect nutrition of the roots. Without this occasional drying of the soil the finer grasses and the leguminous plants will infallibly be lost; while a scum of confervae and other algae will collect upon the surface and choke the higher forms of vegetation. The water should be run off thoroughly, for a little stagnant water lying in places upon the surface does much injury. The practice of irrigating differs in different places with differences in the quality of the water, the soil, the drainage, &c. As a general rule, when the irrigating season begins in November the water may flow for a fortnight continuously, but subsequent waterings, especially after December, should be shortened gradually in duration till the first week in April, when irrigation should cease. It is necessary to be very careful in irrigating during frosty weather. For, though grass will grow even under ice, yet if ice be formed under and around the roots of the grasses the plants may be thrown out by the expansion of the water at the moment of its conversion into ice. The water should be let off on the morning of a dry day, and thus the land will be dry enough at night not to suffer from the frost; or the water may be taken off in the morning and let on again at night. In spring the newly grown and tender grass will be easily destroyed by frost if it be not protected by water, or if the ground be not made thoroughly dry.
Although in many cases it is easy to explain the reasons why water artificially applied to land brings crops or increases their yield, the theory of our ordinary water-meadow irrigation is rather obscure. For we are not dealingTheory.in these grass lands with a semi-aquatic plant like rice, nor arewe supplying any lack of water in the soil, nor are we restoring the moisture which the earth cannot retain under a burning sun. We irrigate chiefly in the colder and wetter half of the year, and we “saturate” with water the soil in which are growing such plants as are perfectly content with earth not containing more than one-fifth of its weight of moisture. We must look in fact to a number of small advantages and not to any one striking beneficial process in explaining the aggregate utility of water-meadow irrigation. We attribute the usefulness of water-meadow irrigation, then, to the following causes: (1) the temperature of the water being rarely less than 10° Fahr. above freezing, the severity of frosts in winter is thus obviated, and the growth, especially of the roots of grasses, is encouraged; (2) nourishment or plant food is actually brought on to the soil, by which it is absorbed and retained, both for the immediate and for the future use of the vegetation, which also itself obtains some nutrient material directly; (3) solution and redistribution of the plant food already present in the soil occur mainly through the solvent action of the carbonic acid gas present in a dissolved state in the irrigation-water; (4) oxidation of any excess of organic matter in the soil, with consequent production of useful carbonic acid and nitrogen compounds, takes place through the dissolved oxygen in the water sent on and through the soil where the drainage is good; and (5) improvement of the grasses, and especially of the miscellaneous herbage, of the meadow is promoted through the encouragement of some at least of the better species and the extinction or reduction of mosses and of the innutritious weeds.
To the united agency of the above-named causes may safely be attributed the benefits arising from the special form of water-irrigation which is practised in England. Should it be thought that the traces of the more valuable sorts of plant food (such as compounds of nitrogen, phosphates, and potash salts) existing in ordinary brook or river water can never bring an appreciable amount of manurial matter to the soil, or exert an appreciable effect upon the vegetation, yet the quantity of water used during the season must be taken into account. If but 3000 gallons hourly trickle over and through an acre, and if we assume each gallon to contain no more than one-tenth of a grain of plant food of the three sorts just named taken together, still the total, during a season including ninety days of actual irrigation, will not be less than 9 ℔ per acre. It appears, however, that a very large share of the benefits of water-irrigation is attributable to the mere contact of abundance of moving water, of an even temperature, with the roots of the grass. The growth is less checked by early frosts; and whatever advantages to the vegetation may accrue by occasional excessive warmth in the atmosphere in the early months of the year are experienced more by the irrigated than by the ordinary meadow grasses by reason of the abundant development of roots which the water has encouraged.
III.Italian Irrigation.—The most highly developed irrigation in the world is probably that practised in the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy, where every variety of condition is to be found. The engineering works are of a very high class, and from long generations of experience the farmer knows how best to use his water. The principal river of northern Italy is the Po, which rises to the west of Piedmont and is fed not from glaciers like the Swiss torrents, but by rain and snow, so that the water has a somewhat higher temperature, a point to which much importance is attached for the valuable meadow irrigation known asmarcite. This is only practised in winter when there is abundance of water available, and it much resembles the water-meadow irrigation of England. The great Cavour canal is drawn from the left bank of the Po a few miles below Turin, and it is carried right across the drainage of the country. Its full discharge is 3800 cub. ft. per second, but it is only from October to May, when the water is least required, that it carries anything like this amount. For the summer irrigation Italy depends on the glaciers of the Alps; and the great torrents of the Dora Baltea and Sesia can be counted on for a volume exceeding 6000 cub. ft. per second. Lombardy is quite as well off as Piedmont for the means of irrigation and, as already said, its canals have the advantage that being drawn from the lakes Maggiore and Como they exercise a moderating influence on the Ticino and Adda rivers, which is much wanted in the Dora Baltea. The Naviglio Grande of Lombardy is a very fine work drawn from the left bank of the Ticino and useful for navigation as well as irrigation. It discharges between 3000 and 4000 cub. ft. per second, and probably nowhere is irrigation carried on with less expense. Another canal, the Villoresi, drawn from the same bank of the Ticino farther upstream, is capable of carrying 6700 cub. ft. per second. Like the Cavour canal, the Villoresi is taken across the drainage of the country, entailing a number of very bold and costly works.
Interesting as these Italian works are, the administration and distribution of the water is hardly less so. The system is due to the ability of the great Count Cavour; what he originated in Piedmont has been also carried out in Lombardy. The Piedmontese company takes over from the government the control of all the irrigation within a triangle between the left bank of the Po and the right bank of the Sesia. It purchases from government about 1250 cub. ft. per second, and has also obtained the control of all private canals. Altogether it distributes about 2275 cub. ft. of water and irrigates about 141,000 acres, on which rice is the most important crop. The association has 14,000 members and controls nearly 10,000 m. of distributary channels. In each parish is a council composed of all landowners who irrigate. Each council sends two deputies to what may be called a water parliament. This assembly elects three small committees, and with them rests the whole management of the irrigation. An appeal may be made to the civil courts from the decision of these committees, but so popular are they that such appeals are never made. The irrigated area is divided into districts, in each of which is an overseer and a staff of watchmen to see to the opening and shutting of themodules(seeHydraulics, §§ 54 to 56) which deliver the water into the minor channels. In the November of each year it is decided how much water is to be given to each parish in the year following, and this depends largely on the number of acres of each crop proposed to be watered. In Lombardy the irrigation is conducted on similar principles. Throughout, the Italian farmer sets a very high example in the loyal way he submits to regulations which there must be sometimes a strong temptation to break. A sluice surreptitiously opened during a dark night and allowed to run for six hours may quite possibly double the value of his crop, but apparently the law is not often broken.
IV.Egypt.—The very life of Egypt depends on its irrigation, and, ancient as this irrigation is, it was never practised on a really scientific system till after the British occupation. As every one knows, the valley of the Nile outside ofCharacteristics of the Nile Valley and flood.the tropics is practically devoid of rainfall. Yet it was the produce of this valley that formed the chief granary of the Roman Empire. Probably nowhere in the world is there so large a population per square mile depending solely on the produce of the soil. Probably nowhere is there an agricultural population so prosperous, and so free from the risks attending seasons of drought or of flood. This wealth and prosperity are due to two very remarkable properties of the Nile. First, the regimen of the river is nearly constant. The season of its rise and its fall, and the height attained by its waters during the highest flood and at lowest Nile vary to a comparatively small extent. Year after year the Nile rises at the same period, it attains its maximum in September and begins to diminish first rapidly till about the end of December, and then more slowly and more steadily until the following June. A late rise is not more than about three weeks behind an early rise. From the lowest to the highest gauge of water-surface the rise is on an average 25.5 ft. at the First Cataract. The highest flood is 3.5 ft. above this average, and this means peril, if not disaster, in Lower Egypt. The lowest flood on record has risen only to 5.5 ft. below the average, or to 20 ft. above the mean water-surface of low Nile. Such a feeble Nile flood has occurred onlyfour times in modern history: in 1877, when it caused widespread famine and death throughout Upper Egypt, 947,000 acres remained barren, and the land revenue lost £1,112,000; in 1899 and again in 1902 and 1907, when by the thorough remodelling of the whole system of canals since 1883 all famine and disaster were avoided and the loss of revenue was comparatively slight. In 1907, for instance, when the flood was nearly as low as in 1877, the area left unwatered was little more than 10% of the area affected in 1877.
This regularity of flow is the first exceptional excellence of the river Nile. The second is hardly less valuable, and consists in the remarkable richness of the alluvium brought down the river year after year during the flood. The object of the engineer is so to utilize this flood-water that as little as possible of the alluvium may escape into the sea, and as much as possible may be deposited on the fields. It is the possession of these two properties that imparts to the Nile a value quite unique among rivers, and gives to the farmers of the Nile Valley advantages over those of any rain-watered land in the world.
Until the 19th century irrigation in Egypt on a large scale was practised merely during the Nile flood. Along each edge of the river and following its course has been erected an earthen embankment high enough not to beIrrigation during high Nile.topped by the highest floods. In Upper Egypt, the valley of which rarely exceeds 6 m. in width, a series of cross embankments have been constructed, abutting at the inner ends on those along the Nile, and at the outer ends on the ascending sides of the valley. The whole country has thus been divided into a series of oblongs, surrounded by embankments on three sides and by the desert slopes on the fourth. These oblong areas vary from 60,000 to 1500 or 2000 acres in extent. Throughout all Egypt the Nile is deltaic in character; that is, the slope of the country in the valley is away from the river and not towards it. It is easy, then, when the Nile is low, to cut short, deep canals in the river banks, which fill as the flood rises, and carry the precious mud-charged water into these great flats. There the water remains for a month or more, some 3 ft. deep, depositing its mud, and thence at the end of the flood the almost clear water may either be run off directly into the receding river, or cuts may be made in the cross embankments, and it may be allowed to flow from one flat to another and ultimately into the river. In November the waters have passed off; and whenever a man can walk over the mud with a pair of bullocks, it is roughly turned over with a wooden plough, or merely the branch of a tree, and the wheat or barley crop is immediately sown. So soaked is the soil after the flood, that the grain germinates, sprouts, and ripens in April, without a shower of rain or any other watering.
In Lower Egypt this system was somewhat modified, but it was the same in principle. No other was known in the Nile Valley until the country fell, early in the 19th century, under the vigorous rule of Mehemet Ali Pasha. He soon recognized that with such a climate and soil, with a teeming population, and with the markets of Europe so near they might produce in Egypt something more profitable than wheat and maize. Cotton and sugar-cane would fetch far higher prices, but they could only be grown while the Nile was low, and they required water at all seasons.
It has already been said that the rise of the Nile is about 25½ ft., so that a canal constructed to draw water out of the river while at its lowest must be 25½ ft. deeper than if it is intended to draw off only during the highestIrrigation during low Nile.floods. Mehemet Ali began by deepening the canals of Lower Egypt by this amount, a gigantic and futile task; for as they had been laid out on no scientific principles, the deep channels became filled with mud during the first flood, and all the excavation had to be done over again, year after year. With a serf population even this was not impossible; but as the beds of the canals were graded to no even slope, it did not follow that if water entered the head it would flow evenly on. As the river daily fell, of course the water in the canals fell too, and since they were never dug deep enough to draw water from the very bottom of the river, they occasionally ran dry altogether in the month of June, when the river was at its lowest, and when, being the month of greatest heat, water was more than ever necessary for the cotton crop. Thus large tracts which had been sown, irrigated, weeded and nurtured for perhaps three months perished in the fourth, while all the time the precious Nile water was flowing useless to the sea. The obvious remedy was to throw a weir across each branch of the river to control the water and force it into canals taken from above it. The task of constructing this great work was committed to Mougel Bey, a French engineer of ability, who designed andThe Nile Barrage.constructed the great barrage across the two branches of the Nile at the apex of the delta, about 12 m. north of Cairo (fig. 2). It was built to consist of two bridges—one over the eastern or Damietta branch of the river having 71 arches, the other, over the Rosetta branch, having 61 arches, each arch being of 5 metres or 16.4 ft. span. The building was all of stone, the floors of the arches were inverts. The height of pier from edge of flooring to spring of arch was 28.7 ft., the spring of the arch being about the surface-level of maximum flood. The arches were designed to be fitted with self-acting drop gates; but they were not a success, and were only put into place on the Rosetta branch. The gates were intended to hold up the water 4.5 metres, or 14.76 ft., and to divert it into three main canals—the Behera on the west, the Menufia in the centre and the Tewfikia on the east. The river was thus to be emptied, and to flow through a whole network of canals, watering all Lower Egypt. Each barrage was provided with locks to pass Nile boats 160 by 28 ft. in area.
Mougel’s barrage, as it may now be seen, is a very imposing and stately work. Considering his want of experience of such rivers as the Nile, and the great difficulties he had to contend with under a succession of ignorant Turkish rulers, it would be unfair to blame him because, until it fell into the hands of British engineers in 1884, the work was condemned as a hopeless failure. It took long years to complete, at a cost which can never be estimated, since much of it was done by serf labour. In 1861 it was at length said to be finished; but it was not until 1863 that the gates of the Rosetta branch were closed, and they were reopened again immediately, as a settlement of the masonry took place. The experiment was repeated year after year till 1867, when the barrage cracked right across from foundation to top. A massive coffer-dam was then erected, covering the eleven arches nearest the crack; but the work was never trusted again, nor the water-surface raised more than about 3 ft.
An essential part of the barrage project was the three canals, taking their water from just above it, as shown in fig. 2. The heads of the existing old canals, taken out of the river at intervals throughout the delta, were to be closed, and the canals themselves all put into connexion with the three high-level trunk lines taken from above the barrage. The central canal, or Menufia, was more or less finished, and, although full of defects, has done good service. The eastern canal was never dug at all untilthe British occupation. The western, or Behera, canal was dug, but within its first 50 m. it passes through desert, and sand drifted into it.Corvéesof 20,000 men used to be forced to clear it out year after year, but at last it was abandoned. Thus the whole system broke down, the barrage was pronounced a failure, and attention was turned to watering Lower Egypt by a system of gigantic pumps, to raise the water from the river and discharge it into a system of shallow surface-canals, at an annual cost of about £250,000, while the cost of the pumps was estimated at £700,000. Negotiations were on foot for carrying out this system when the British engineers arrived in Egypt. They soon resolved that it would be very much better if the original scheme of using the barrage could be carried out, and after a careful examination of the work they were satisfied that this could be done. The barrage rests entirely on the alluvial bed of the Nile. Nothing more solid than strata of sand and mud is to be found for more than 200 ft. below the river. It was out of the question, therefore, to think of founding on solid material, and yet it was desired to have a head of water of 13 or 14 ft. upon the work. Of course, with such a pressure as this, there was likely to be percolation under the foundations and a washing-out of the soil. It had to be considered whether this percolation could best be checked by laying a solid wall across the river, going down to 50 or 60 ft. below its bed, or by spreading out the foundations above and below the bridge, so as to form one broad water-tight flooring—a system practised with eminent success by Sir Arthur Cotton in Southern India. It was decided to adopt the latter system. As originally designed, the flooring of the barrage from up-stream to downstream face was 111.50 ft. wide, the distance which had to be travelled by water percolating under the foundations. This width of flooring was doubled to 223 ft., and along the upstream face a line of sheet piling was driven 16 ft. deep. Over the old flooring was superposed 15 in. of the best rubble masonry, an ashlar floor of blocks of close-grained trachyte being laid directly under the bridge, where the action was severest. The working season lasted only from the end of November to the end of June, while the Nile was low; and the difficulty of getting in the foundations was increased, as, in the interests of irrigation and to supply the Menufia canal, water was held up every season while the work was in progress to as much as 10 ft. The work was begun in 1886, and completed in June 1890. Moreover, in the meantime the eastern, or Tewfikia, canal was dug and supplied with the necessary masonry works for a distance of 23 m., to where it fed the network of old canals. The western, or Behera, canal was thoroughly cleared out and remodelled; and thus the whole delta irrigation was supplied from above the barrage.
The outlay on the barrage between 1883 and 1891 amounted to about £460,000. The average cotton crop for the 5 years preceding 1884 amounted to 123,000 tons, for the 5 years ending 1898 it amounted to 251,200 tons. At the low rate of £40 per ton, this means an annual increase to the wealth of Lower Egypt of £5,128,000. Since 1890 the barrage has done its duty without accident, but a work of such vast importance to Lower Egypt required to be placed beyond all risk. It having been found that considerable hollow spaces existed below the foundations of some of the piers, five bore-holes from the top of the roadway were pierced vertically through each pier of both barrages, and similar holes were drilled at intervals along all the lock walls. Down these holes cement grout was injected under high pressure on the system of Mr Kinipple. The work was successfully carried out during the seasons 1896 to 1898. During the summer of 1898 the Rosetta barrage was worked under a pressure of 14 ft. But this was looked on as too near the limit of safety to be relied on, and in 1899 subsidiary weirs were started across both branches of the river a short distance below the two barrages. These were estimated to cost £530,000 altogether, and were to stand 10.8 ft. above the river’s bed, allowing the water-surface up-stream of the barrage to be raised 7.2 ft., while the pressure on that work itself would not exceed 10 ft. These weirs were satisfactorily completed in 1901.
The barrage is the greatest, but by no means the only important masonry work in Lower Egypt. Numerous regulating bridges and locks have been built to give absolute control of the water and facilities for navigation; and since 1901 a second weir has been constructed opposite Zifta, across the Damietta branch of the Nile, to improve the irrigation of the Dakhilia province.
In the earlier section of this article it is explained how necessary it is that irrigation should always be accompanied by drainage. This had been totally neglected in Egypt; but very large sums have been spent on it, and the country is now covered with a network of drains nearly as complete as that of the canals.
The ancient system of basin irrigation is still pursued in Upper Egypt, though by the end of 1907 over 320,000 feddans of land formerly under basin irrigation had been given, at a cost of over £E3,000,000, perennial irrigation.Basin irrigation of Upper Egypt.This conversion work was carried out in the provinces situated between Cairo and Assiut, a region sometimes designated Middle Egypt. The ancient system seems simple enough; but in order really to flood the whole Nile Valley during seasons of defective as well as favourable floods, a system of regulating sluices, culverts and syphons is necessary; and for want of such a system it was found, in the feeble flood of 1888, that there was an area of 260,000 acres over which the water never flowed. This cost a loss of land revenue of about £300,000, while the loss of the whole season’s crop to the farmer was of course much greater. The attention of the British engineers was then called to this serious calamity; and fortunately for Egypt there was serving in the country Col. J. C. Ross, R.E., an officer who had devoted many years of hard work to the irrigation of the North-West Provinces of India, and who possessed quite a special knowledge as well as a glowing enthusiasm for the subject. Fortunately, too, it was possible to supply him with the necessary funds to complete and remodel the canal system. When the surface-water of a river is higher than the fields right and left, there is nothing easier than to breach the embankments and flood the fields—in fact, it may be more difficult to prevent their being flooded than to flood them—but in ordinary floods the Nile is never higher than all the bordering lands, and in years of feeble flood it is higher than none of them. To water the valley, therefore, it is necessary to construct canals having bed-slopes less than that of the river, along which the water flows until its surface is higher than that of the fields. If, for instance, the slope of the river be 4 in. per mile, and that of the canal 2 in. it is evident that at the end of a mile the water in the canal will be 2 in. higher than in the river; and if the surface of the land is 3 ft. higher than that of the river, the canal, gaining on it at 2 in. per mile, will reach the surface in 18 m., and from thence onwards will be above the adjoining fields. But to irrigate this upper 18 m., water must either be raised artificially, or supplied from another canal taking its source 18 m. farther up. This would, however, involve the country in great lengths of canal between the river and the field, and circumstances are not so unfavourable as this. Owing to the deltaic nature of the Nile Valley, the fields on the banks are 3 ft. above the flood, at 2 m. away from the banks they may not be more than 1 ft. above that level, so that the canal, gaining 2 in. per mile and receding from the river, will command the country in 6 m. The slope of the river, moreover, is taken in its winding course; and if it is 4 in. per mile, the slope of the axis of the valley parallel to which the canals may be made to flow is at least 6 in. per mile, so that a canal with a slope of 2 in. gains 4 in. per mile.
The system of having one canal overlapping another has one difficulty to contend with. Occasionally the desert cliffs and slopes come right down to the river, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to carry the higher-level canals past these obstructions. It should also be noticed that on the higher strip bordering the river it is the custom to take advantage of its nearness to raise water by pumps, or other machinery, and thereby to grow valuable crops of sugar-cane, maize or vegetables. When theriver rises, these crops, which often form a very important part of the year’s produce and are termedNabári, are still in the ground, and they require water in moderate and regulated quantities, in contradistinction to the wholesale flooding of the flats beyond. Fig. 3 will serve to explain this system of irrigation, the firm lines representing canals, the dotted lines embankments. It will be seen, beginning on the east or right bank of the river, that a high-level canal from an upper system is carried past a steep slope, where perhaps it is cut entirely out of rock, and it divides into two. The right branch waters all the desert slopes within its reach and level. The left branch passes, by a syphon aqueduct, under what is the main canal of the system, taken from the river close at hand (and therefore at a lower level). This left branch irrigates theNabárion the high lands bordering the river. In years of very favourable flood this high-level canal would not be wanted at all; the irrigation could be done from the main canal, and with this great advantage, that the main canal water would carry with it much more fertilizing matter than would be got from the tail of the high-level canal, which left the river perhaps 25 m. up. The main canal flows freely over the flats C and D, and, if the flood is good, over B and part of A. It is carried round the next desert point, and to the north becomes the high-level canal. The masonry works required for this system are a syphon to pass the high level under the main canal near its head, bridges fitted with sluices where each canal passes under an embankment, and an escape weir at the tail of the system, just south of the desert point, to return surplus water to the river. Turning to the left bank, there is the same high-level canal from the upper system irrigating the basins K, P and L, as well as the large basin E in such years as it cannot be irrigated from the main canal. Here there are two main canals—one following the river, irrigating a series of smaller basins, and throwing out a branch to its left, the other passing under the desert slopes and supplying the basins F, G, H and S. For this system two syphons will be required near the head, regulating bridges under all the embankments, and an escape weir back into the river.
In the years following 1888 about 100 new masonry works of this kind were built in Upper Egypt, nearly 400 m. of new canal were dug, and nearly 300 m. of old canal were enlarged and deepened. The result has been, as already stated, that with a complete failure of the Nile flood the loss to the country has been trifling compared with that of 1877.
The first exception in Upper Egypt to the basin system of irrigation was due to the Khedive Ismail. The khedive, having acquired vast estates in the provinces of Assiut, Miniah, Beni-Suef and the Fayúm, resolved to grow sugar-cane on a very large scale, and with this object constructed a very important perennial canal, named the Ibrahimia, taking out of the left bank of the Nile at the town of Assiut, and flowing parallel to the river for about 200 m., with an important branch which irrigates the Fayúm. This canal was badly constructed, and by entirely blocking the drainage of the valley did a great deal of harm to the lands. Most of its defects had been remedied, but one remained. There being at its head no weir across the Nile, the water in the Ibrahimia canal used to rise and fall with that of the river, and so the supply was apt to run short during the hottest months, as was the case with the canals of Lower Egypt before the barrage was built. To supply the Ibrahimia canal at all during low Nile, it had been necessary to carry on dredging operations at an annual cost of about £12,000. This has now been rectified, in the same way as in Lower Egypt, by theAssiut Weir and Esna Barrage.construction of a weir across the Nile, intended to give complete control over the river and to raise the water-surface 8.2 ft. The Assiut weir is constructed on a design very similar to that of the barrage in Lower Egypt. It consists of a bridge of 111 arches, each 5 metres span, with piers of 2 metres thickness. In each arch are fitted two gates. There is a lock 80 metres long and 16 metres wide at the left or western end of the weir, and adjoining it are the regulating sluices of the Ibrahimia canal. The Assiut weir across the Nile is just about half a mile long. The work was begun at the end of 1898 and finished early in 1902—in time to avert over a large area the disastrous effects which would otherwise have resulted from the low Nile of that year. The money value of the crops saved by the closing of the weir was not less than £E690,000. The conversion of the lands north of Assiut from basin to perennial irrigation began immediately after the completion of the Assiut weir and was finished by the end of 1908. To render the basin lands of the Kena province independent of the flood being bad or good, another barrage was built across the Nile at Esna at a cost of £1,000,000. This work was begun in 1906 and completed in 1909.
These works, as well as that in Lower Egypt, are intended to raise the water-surface above it, and to control the distribution of its supply, but in no way to store that supply. The idea of ponding up the superfluous flood discharge of the river is not a new one, and if Herodotus is to be believed,Storage.it was a system actually pursued at a very early period of Egyptian history, when Lake Moeris in the Fayúm was filled at each Nile flood, and drawn upon as the river ran down. When British engineers first undertook the management of Egyptian irrigation many representations were made to them of the advantage of storing the Nile water; but they consistently maintained that before entering on that subject it was their duty to utilize every drop of the water at their disposal. This seemed all the more evident, as at that time financial reasons made the construction of a costly Nile dam out of the question. Every year, however, between 1890 and 1902 the supply of the Nile during May and June was actually exhausted, no water at all flowing then out into the sea. In these years, too, owing to the extension of drainage works, the irrigable area of Egypt was greatly enlarged, so that if perennial cultivation was at all to be increased, it was necessary to increase the volume of the river, and this could only be done by storing up the flood supply. The first difficulty that presented itself in carrying this out, was that during the months of highest flood the Nile is so charged with alluvial matter that to pond it up then would inevitably lead to a deposit of silt in the reservoir, which would in no great number of years fill it up. It was found, however, that the flood water was comparatively free from deposit by the middle of November, while the river was still so high that, without injuring the irrigation, water might go on being stored up until March. Accordingly, when it was determined to construct a dam, it was decided that it should be supplied with sluices large enough to discharge unchecked the whole volume of the river as it comes down until the middle of November, and then to begin the storage.
The site selected for the great Nile dam was at the head of the First Cataract above Assuan. A dyke of syenite granite here crosses the valley, so hard that the river had nowhere scoured a deep channel through it, and so it was found possibleThe Assuan Dam.to construct the dam entirely in the open air, without thenecessity of laying under-water foundations. The length of the dam is about 6400 ft.—nearly 1¼ m. The greatest head of water in it is 65 ft. It is pierced by 140 under-sluices of 150 sq. ft. each, and by 40 upper-sluices, each of 75 sq. ft. These, when fully open, are capable of discharging the ordinary maximum Nile flood of 350,000 cub. ft. per second, with a velocity of 15.6 ft. per second and a head of 6.6 ft. The top width of the dam is 23 ft., the bottom width at the deepest part about 82 ft. On the left flank of the dam there is a canal, provided with four locks, each 262 by 31 ft. in area, so that navigation is possible at all seasons. The storage capacity of the reservoir is about 3,750,000 millions of cub. ft., which creates a lake extending up the Nile Valley for about 200 m. The reservoir is filled yearly by March; after that the volume reaching the reservoir from the south is passed on through the sluices. In May, or earlier when the river is late in rising, when the demand for water increases, first the upper and then the under sluices are gradually opened, so as to increase the river supply, until July, when all the gates are open, to allow of the free passage of the flood. On the 10th of December 1902 this magnificent work was completed. The engineer who designed it was Sir W. Willcocks. The contractors were Messrs John Aird & Co., the contract price being £2,000,000. The financial treaties in which the Egyptian government were bound up prevented their ever paying so large a sum as this within five years; but a company was formed in London to advance periodically the sum due to the contractors, on receipt from the government of Egypt of promissory notes to pay sixty half-yearly instalments of £78,613, beginning on the 1st of July 1903. Protective works downstream of the dam were completed in 1906 at a cost of about £E304,000. It had been at first intended to raise the dam to a height which would have involved the submergence, for some months of every year, of the Philae temples, situated on an island just upstream of the dam. Had the natives of Egypt been asked to choose between the preservation of Ptolemy’s famed temple and the benefit to be derived from a considerable additional depth of water storage, there can be no question that they would have preferred the latter; but they were not consulted, and the classical sentiment and artistic beauty of the place, skilfully pleaded by archaeologists and artists, prevailed. In 1907, however, it was decided to carry out the plan as originally proposed and raise the dam 26 ft. higher. This would increase the storage capacity 2½ times, or to about 9,375,000 millions of cubic feet.
There is no middle course of farming in Egypt between irrigation and desert. No assessment can be levied on lands which have not been watered, and the law of Egypt requires that in order to render land liable to taxation the water during the Nile flood must have flowed naturally over it. It is not enough that it should be pumped on to the land at the expense of the landowner. The tax usually levied is from £1 to £2 per acre.