Antiquity Of Irrigation

The valley of the Euphrates was crossed by hundreds of miles of canals from 200 to 400 feet acrosa carrylng water to arld lands beyond. In India there are now under irrigation 25,000,000 acres; In Egypt, 6,000,000 acres; in Italy, 3,700,000 acres; in France, 400,000 acres, and in the United States, 4,000,000 acres. Thevalleys of theNlle and theGanges the two most fertile in the world, have been irrigated for centurles from the rivera with no other fertilizers t.han what the rirer water brought. For hundreds of yeara Spain and other aouthern European countries have relied on lrrigation, and in the lost o.ltles of Peru, South America and Mexico lrrigation was practiced when those countries were discovered. Plato was told by Solon over 2,000 years ago that it existed in Egypt, and also was told the story of the lost island Atlantis, which was sunk in the occan thousands of years prevlously and which was said to have had the most perfect system of irrigation known.