Show I I ANCIENT IRRIGATION I The work ef of reclaiming the toe arid aridI j I plains of the great gm t wot wOl t and the deserts rot ef r California and Arizona bring to mind tile the fact that thousands of years year ago ao a irrigation was 18 employed in Asia and the earth caused eau ed to tAJ bring brin forth fruit and lid grain grath in great Meso Mesopotamia situated in the Asiatic Turkey I of oC today is one of or the earliest earlIest examples afforded by history It was 18 In thle this valley valle that toot the Ute Almighty promised to tomake tomake make the descendants l of Abraham a agrest great grest nation and It was here h re that tee tae chi ren of Israel wore were sold into the hand bend of the king of o the country by b the Lord after the t e death of Joshua for serving errin Balaam which captivity butted ILSted sight years The London Landon Saturday rda Re Review ReI Review view vie recently contained the following description of these those ancient Irrigation works lUvora are always the of the earliest civilisations and iI hi this the tM Tigris and aad are rivals ais of oC the Nile Kite XI for Cor Babylonia Bablonia like Egypt was wall a rivers gift itt The Mes Mo Mesopotamia lOti n valley I Is intersected inter gridIron grid gridiron gridIron iron fashion f lon by b huge canals not dug dugout dugout out ut but built upon upen the earths surface crossing the plain from Crom river to river and seeming to the traveler like range behind ranges of curiously 1 regular hills From these lessor onaIs 88 ats in all directions and gave birth in turn tum to others othen still It smaller until at last the final linal threads carried the water to every enry grove and garden and Individual palm A system s stem of Iniga irrigation irrigation tion eo so mechanically perfect and on so 10 vast valt a 8 scale e k was never elsewhere oI seen All AU the wealth e and splendor and power JUwer of the ancient Babylonian ant an Assyrian empires wore were founded upon this aye system system I tem tern They issued from and were de k dependent pendent upon it The prosperity of ef the tM country hung upon Its water supply as U a absolutely as the existence of a Sa Sn Saharan Saharan haran oasis hangs bangs upon its well A harm hann done to the ui irrigation system was felt fell through all aft the civilization it nour nourished nourIshed nourished I I But the Mesopotamian civilization civilisation passed away a when the complicated ir Ii irrigation I system was 85 allowed to decay d I IThe The Tigris and a Euphrates still flow on either elthe side of the country once onee on rich and lind powerful but now alas unproductive except along the Ute river banks It ft Is in inhabited Inhabited habited by Jy Kurds and Arabs who are art content with the scant pasturage and anti whose who e very existence IS IB precarious p iou in inthe Inthe the extreme nt In IA the United States today te a i we e are but following in the footsteps of C the primi primitive primitive tive inhabitants il of Asia when we take the Ute water of ot the rivers and apply it to toUte the Ute lands would otherwise be barren There is this difference how however however ever The one Irrigation works are aft more permanent in character and ana built upon a nines more scientific haMs basis The Tho age ae e in which willett we live is more enlightened and andI there is I ne no danger of the country being bing I overrun by b a foreign foe fo The irrigation Irrigation tion system of 0 Mesopotamia required a multitude of trained laborers and ex ox expert expert pert engineers to keep it In IA order while white the works in the western part of the United Unit States State or in course of ot construction require the attention of ot comparatively few lew people for Cor their up upkeep upkeep upkeep keep Hundreds of years hence h e the plains plain and valleys Talleys now being made to blossom will in all II human probability still smile upon the husbandman who ho tit tills till the tM soil |