OCR Text |
Show IN TIIK FA II EAST. The following strong- word-painting of the primitive methods of irrigation still employed in the land of Northern Syria, the land of the Euphrates, the Orentes and the Tigris, cannot but impress im-press itself on the successful American irrigator who sees the forces of nature-subdued nature-subdued and controlled for his benefit through modern engineering ingenuity. "From the dawn of human ingenuity," ingenui-ty," says Raghib Raif, in the Irrigation Irriga-tion Age, "for centuries unnumbered, wooden water wheels of fearful form and cumbrous weight, huge monsters which gave grudgingly, were used along the river banks, requiring high dams and constant repairs- much at-' toniion for meager results. With what ; success'.-' In winter a lirnvy, fullen, I groaning revolution', 't-ffi-mrig at the! will of the capricious currents, and at a time When water, in the form of rain, is showered down, thus reducing their valtieasirrigationmttchir.es. In summer, sum-mer, when the heats were come the dry earth cracked and crying, they would stand mockingly motionless in their sluggish currents, seeming to ridicule rid-icule the puny efforts of primitive man." |