. Principles of irrigation engineering, arid lands, water supply, storage works, dams, canals, water rights and products. oubtless in the semi-tropical and rela-tively arid regions, where there is a periodic overflow of the desertareas traversed by some of the large rivers like the Nile. Thesestreams, coming from plateau or mountain regions, are swollen byseasonal rains or melting of snow. Mankind in the early stages of 1 2 PRINCIPLES OF IRRIGATION ENGINEERING development learned to guide or assist this overflow by rough dikesand rudely constructed ditches, later building canals to bring thewa
. Principles of irrigation engineering, arid lands, water supply, storage works, dams, canals, water rights and products. oubtless in the semi-tropical and rela-tively arid regions, where there is a periodic overflow of the desertareas traversed by some of the large rivers like the Nile. Thesestreams, coming from plateau or mountain regions, are swollen byseasonal rains or melting of snow. Mankind in the early stages of 1 2 PRINCIPLES OF IRRIGATION ENGINEERING development learned to guide or assist this overflow by rough dikesand rudely constructed ditches, later building canals to bring thewater out to lands which would not be overflowed naturally, andthus gradually becoming independent of the natural rise of thestream. Before historic times the practice of irrigation had beenrecognized to such an extent that rules relating to the handling ofwater were embodied in the earliest of known writings. In the codeof Hammurabi (2250 B. C.) it appears that provisions were made tocover similar troubles and controversies that are being met concerning the distribution of water and guarding against waste. Fig. I.—Humid regions of the world, indicated in black; arid or non-productiveregions indicated by uncolored land areas. or damage to a neighbors field through carelessness may be copiedand applied to modem conditions from the oldest of recorded regu-lations. In nearly all of the countries bordering the Mediterraneanand to the east in Mesopotamia, India and China, the art of irri-gation was practised. The early writings on the discovery and con-quest of Mexico and of South American countries casually mentionthe irrigation canals as part of the features of the country. The relative location and position of the arid regions of the worldare indicated by the black areas on the accompanying diagrammaticmap (Fig. i). This illustrates how small are these humid areas,as compared with the total land surface enclosed within the outlinesand left blank as indicating conditio
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectirrigat, bookyear1913
