Experience in these sub-tropical countries shows the absolute necessity of having, for successful irrigation, also a system of thorough drainage. It was some time before this was discovered in India, and the result has been the deterioration of much good land.
In Egypt, prior to the British occupation in 1883, no attempt had been made to take the water off the land. The first impression of a great alluvial plain is that it is absolutely flat, with no drainage at all. Closer examination, however, shows that if the prevailing slopes are not more than a few inches in the mile, yet they do exist, and scientific irrigation requires that the canals should be taken along the crests and drains along the hollows. In the diagram (fig. 1) is shown to the right of the river a system of canals branching out and afterwards rejoining one another so as to allow of no means for the water that passes off the field to escape into the sea. Hence it must either evaporate or sink into the soil. Now nearly all rivers contain some small percentage of salt, which forms a distinct ingredient in alluvial plains. The result of this drainless irrigation is an efflorescence of salt on the surface of the field. The spring level rises, so that water can be reached by digging only a few feet, and the land, soured and water-logged, relapses into barrenness. Of this description was the irrigation of Lower Egypt previous to 1883. To the left of the diagram is shown (by firm lines) a system of canals laid out scientifically, and of drains (by dotted lines) flowing between them. It is the effort of the British engineers in Egypt to remodel the surface of the fields to this type.
Further information may be found in Sir C. C. Scott-Moncrieff, Irrigation in Southern Europe (London, 1868); Moncrieff, “Lectures on Irrigation in Egypt,” Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, vol. xix. (London, 1893); W. Willcocks, Egyptian Irrigation (2nd ed., London, 1899).
II. Water Meadows.—Nowhere in England can it be said that irrigation is necessary to ordinary agriculture, but it is occasionally employed in stimulating the growth of grass and meadow herbage in what are known as water-meadows. These are in some instances of very early origin. On the Avon in Wiltshire and the Churn in Gloucestershire they may be traced back to Roman times. This irrigation is not practised in the drought of summer, but in the coldest and wettest months of the year, the water employed being warmer than the natural moisture of the soil and proving a valuable protection against frost.
| Fig. 1.—Diagram showing irrigation properly combined with drainage (to left), and laid out regardless of drainage required later (to right). |
Before the systematic conversion of a tract into water-meadows can be safely determined on, care must be taken to have good drainage, natural or artificial, a sufficient supply of water, and water of good quality. It might indeed have been thought that thorough drainage would be unnecessary, but it must be noted that porous subsoils or efficient drains do not act merely by carrying away stagnant water which would otherwise cool the earth, incrust the surface, and retard plant growth. They cause the soil to perform the office of a filter. Thus the earth and the roots of grasses absorb the useful matters not only from the water that passes over it, but from that which passes through it. These fertilizing materials are found stored up in the soil ready for the use of the roots of the plants. Stagnation of water is inimical to the action of the roots, and does away with the advantageous processes of flowing and percolating currents. Some of the best water-meadows in England have but a thin soil resting on gravel and flints, this constituting a most effectual system of natural drainage. The fall of the water supply must suffice for a fairly rapid current, say 10 in. or 1 ft. in from 100 to 200 yds. If possible the water should be taken so far above the meadows as to have sufficient fall without damming up the river. If a dam be absolutely necessary, care must be taken so to build it as to secure the fields on both sides from possible inundation; and it should be constructed substantially, for the cost of repairing accidents to a weak dam is very serious.
Even were the objects of irrigation always identical, the conditions under which it is carried on are so variable as to preclude calculations of quantity. Mere making up of necessary water in droughty seasons is one thing, protection Quantity of water. against frost is another, while the addition of soil material is a third. Amongst causes of variation in the quantity of water needed will be its quality and temperature and rate of flow, the climate, the season, the soil, the subsoil, the artificial drainage, the slope, the aspect and the crop. In actual practice the amount of water varies from 300 gallons per acre in the hour to no less than 28,000 gallons. Where water is used, as in dry and hot countries, simply as water, less is generally needed than in cold, damp and northerly climates, where the higher temperature and the action of the water as manure are of more consequence. But it is necessary to be thoroughly assured of a good supply of water before laying out a water-meadow. Except in a few places where unusual dryness of soil and climate indicate the employment of water, even in small quantity, merely to avoid the consequences of drought, irrigation works are not to be commenced upon a large area, if only a part can ever be efficiently watered. The engineer must not decide upon the plan till he has gauged at different seasons the stream which has to supply the water, and has ascertained the rain-collecting area available, and the rainfall of the district, as well as the proportion of storable to percolating and evaporating water. Reservoirs for storage, or for equalizing the flow, are rarely resorted to in England; but they are of absolute necessity in those countries in which it is just when there is least water that it is most wanted. It is by no means an injudicious plan before laying out a system of water-meadows, which is intended to be at all extensive, to prepare a small trial plot, to aid in determining a number of questions relating to the nature and quantity of the water, the porosity of the soil, &c.
The quality of the water employed for any of the purposes of irrigation is of much importance. Its dissolved and its suspended matters must both be taken into account. Clear water is usually preferable for grass land, thick for Quality of water. arable land. If it is to be used for warping, or in any way for adding to the solid material of the irrigated land, then the nature and amount of the suspended material are necessarily of more importance than the character of the dissolved substances, provided the latter are not positively injurious. For use on ordinary water-meadows, however, not only is very clear water often found to be perfectly efficient, but water having no more than a few grains of dissolved matter per gallon answers the purposes in view satisfactorily. Water from moors and peat-bogs or from gravel or ferruginous sandstone is generally of small utility so far as plant food is concerned. River water, especially that which has received town sewage, or the drainage of highly manured land, would naturally be considered most suitable for irrigation, but excellent results are obtained also with waters which are uncontaminated with manurial matters, and which contain but 8 or 10 grains per gallon of the usual dissolved constituents of spring water. Experienced English irrigators generally commend as suitable for water-meadows those streams in which fish and waterweeds abound. But the particular plants present in or near the water-supply afford further indications of quality. Water-cress, sweet flag, flowering rush, several potamogetons, water milfoil, water ranunculus, and the reedy sweet watergrass (Glyceria aquatica) rank amongst the criteria of excellence. Less favourable signs are furnished by such plants as Arundo Donax (in Germany), Cicuta virosa and Typha latifolia, which are found in stagnant and torpid waters. Water when it has been used for irrigation generally becomes of less value for the same purpose. This occurs with clear water as well as with turbid, and obviously arises mainly from the loss of plant food which occurs when water filters through or trickles over poor soil. By passing over or through rich soil the water may, however, actually be enriched, just as clear water passed through a charcoal filter which has been long used becomes impure. It has been contended that irrigation water suffers no change in composition by use, since by evaporation of a part of the pure water the dissolved matters in the remainder would be so increased as to make up for any matters removed. But it is forgotten that both the plant and the soil enjoy special powers of selective absorption, which remove and fix the better constituents of the water and leave the less valuable.
Of the few leguminous plants which are in any degree suitable for water-meadows, Lotus corniculatus major, Trifolium hybridum, and T. pratense are those which generally flourish best; T. repens is less successful. Amongst grasses Seeds for water-meadows. the highest place must be assigned to ryegrass, especially to the Italian variety, commonly called Lolium italicum. The mixture of seeds for sowing a water-meadow demands much consideration, and must be modified according to local circumstances of soil, aspect, climate and drainage. From the peculiar use which is made of the produce of an irrigated meadow, and from the conditions to which it is subjected, it is necessary to include in our mixture of seeds some that produce an early crop, some that give an abundant growth, and some that impart sweetness and good flavour, while all the kinds sown must be capable of flourishing on irrigated soil.
The following mixtures of seeds (stated in pounds per acre) have been recommended for sowing on water-meadows, Messrs Sutton of Reading, after considerable experience, regarding No. I. as the more suitable: