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The Soudan, -where the English hero
Gordon waited in vain the relief that
Mr. Gladstone never sent an error, by
the way. that caused Mr. Gladstone to
change from1 prime minister of the Brit
ish Empire to a retired country gentle
man in the neighborhood of Folkestone.
Suffolk is about to undergo a trans
formation from barren, shifting sands,
more treacherous and less hospitable
than the waves of the NoVth Sea. to a
veritable garden. A succession of hir
vests and pleasant reaches of cultivated
fields will greet the traveler along that
railway which Jvitchener pushed from
the junction of the Blue and the White
Xiles, straight a.cross the sands to Khar
toum, and there avenged the death of
Gordon. In the Soudan, when it i-ains,
the stolid Mohammedans fall on their
knees a pray. Such events are told
and' retold from one generation to an
. other. In other words, scientists calcu
late that it rains in the Soudan proper
about once in every 100 years. '
The transformation of the Soudan
from an arid, sand-blasted desert to one
of the most fertile countries of the
world. It is expected, will require five
years of hard labor, about 550.000,000. and
a force of some 300 European engineers
and overseers, and probably from 20,000
to 40.000 fellaheen. The tremendous
change In the prosperity of Egypt is ow
ing to the, marvelous engineering which ;
has enabled the British to dam the Nile
In several .places and by the construction,
of regulators to make it possible for
the Valley of the Nile to secure a regu-.
lar and certain irrigation. This means c
that the famines which enabled Joseph
to gain the favor of the Pharaoh by his
true Jewish forethought and commercial
ability are now a thing of the past In
Eypt. The lean and fat kine have been
replaced in modern Egypt, under the
sagacious ruling of Lord Qromer,' who,
in the name of the Khedive, rules Egypt
and keeps in his embroidered pocket the
great key to the Suez approach to India
by a constant succession of well-fattened
beeves. More than that, without
vexatious taxation, the Egyptian fellah
has been able to pay more than "the in
terest of the bonds and stocks issued to
ecure the funds of the irrigation in
eypt proper.
But the Soudan, which Is separate
from Egypt by the lofty cliffs of the
Nile Mountains, and which is really a
trong deDression which leads up to.
the slightly higher desert of the Sahara,
presents a problem' in' irrigation far
rnore difficult. Nevertheless, the engi
neers, who for years have been studying
the possibilities of the Blue Nile in con-,
nection with irrigating the Soudan, have
solved the question. Sir William Gar
etin. who is at the head of the depart-"
trient of irrigation in Egypt under Lord
Cromer, after studying the reports made
to him by Engineers C. E. Dupuis and
P. M. Tottenham, has grouped the vari
ous engineering and scientific problems
in connection with irrigating the Sou
dan under the following heads:
Open dam near Wad Medani. on the.
Blue Nile.
Dam and storage reservoir near Ro
a Ires', on the Blue Nile.
River Gash irrigation
Dam and storage reservoir near
Xhasm-el-Girba. on theAtbara River. '
Storage reservoirs on the Dinder and
2 a had Rivers. '
Storage reservoirs on the - Upper At
bara. "WHERE THE WATER COMES FROM.
The water, which it is proposed to
tore and gradually let . drivel down
during the dry season in the bea of the
Blue Nile, actually descends from the
heavens over a large section of Abys
sinia. As a result the British fertiliza
tion of the Soudan practically and.po-t
Jitlcally depends upon the content of
fclmperor Menelik,the most potent bar
baric and altogether crafty ruler of
Abyssinia. Menelik withheld his con
sent for sometime. In the fir.st place,
' the Soudan was the natural and provi
dential guarantee against his future ab
sorption into the maw of the British
l;on. With a cultivated and consequent
ly populous and more or less civilized
Eoudan, Abyssinia would occupy the
Jiow historical and traditional post in
JSrMsh diplomacy of being the next nat-
-QOeOOT
Ural and inevitable addition to the Brit
ish Empire. However, Menelik ha been
worked on and bribed and liet to so
thoroughly and so skilfully tha: his
consent has bean given, despite the
counter-intriguing of the French For
eign Office. The key to the who'.e situa
tion is Lake Tsana. '
Lnke Tsaria is. about the size of Lake
Ontario and is the largest body of
fresh water in North Africa. While not
the chief source of the Blue Nile, "which
. gushes through the Soudan five months
in the year, and is merely a succession
cf. shallow puddles the remaining time,
it is the only possible- hope of Soudan
irrigation. And yet, no,w that it lias
been arranged with Abyssinia, the prob
lem of irrigating the Soudan is in many
wavs an easy one. The"Biue Nile has
none of the terrific falls which plagued j
the engineers who arranged for the con- ;
trol of the real Nile. - ;
Vtist Uuatititie of Water' A vnilabl
When calculating what the possibili
ties of Lake Tsana. as a storage reser
voir may be, it will be as well to note
nat the natural discharges - or uie
Birvj Nite are and what suppiemenung
-theyVwm require at certain seasons.
Tho flood discharge varies from 70,000
to 120,000 gallons a second, sufficient for
all land within reach. If the Soudan
abstracts so considerable, a quantity of
the Mood as to affect the levels of the
Nile in Egypt materially, this will be a
matter of no consequence when . a11
jgy)t - is converted to perennial irriga
tion. If it is not so converted, then
Pypt must meet the situation by mak
ing dams to produce artificially the
levels required, as the volume of the
flood Will be always mpre than suftl
Hont Tn hieh Hoods the reduction of
the flood levels will be a relief to Egypt
It is therefore, evident that the flood I
suPDly is equal to aii u-iiuiiwucuia,
since a discharge of 0.000 gallons .a
second would lill 1,900,000 acres of basin
in 30 days; .though what the possible
basin may become is one of those things
which is not yet determined.
In winter the Blue Nile discharge
shrinks from 4,000 to 2,000 gallons a sec
ond or -" in'-other words, from 350,000,000
to O 000,000 gallons a day, sufficient for a
million acres if the minimum discharge
is ued as determining the area, or for
1,500,000 acres if the average discharge Is
taken. '. . !. ' . '
In summer the -Blue Nile discharge at
Khartoum may be anything between
o urm f: linns. a second arid nothing. In
l'Xtt it fell to -nothing, fao that without
storage of water, summer., crops cannot
be grown by irrigation from the Blue
sji'e And so comes the1 question of
water storage and the consideration of
the advantager. offered by Lake Tsana
as a reservoir.- .
The area of ike Tsana Itself is 3.000
sQuare miles, and its catchment, exclu
sive of the lake area, is 11,000 square
mils The rainfall is three feet each
year "falling almost wholly in the four
months of Jun-, July, August and Sep
tember. The proportion of the rainfall
that reaches the ;akf. is 25 per cent. The
outflow from the lake is calculated to
be &0,000,000 gallons e- clay ar an average
for the year.
...s .frT 11 1 i vtf w : : '. II
IWCTJajl CFjrKVVsh7rJ2LE3
Calculating in the same way in the
case of the White Nile lakes, we have
the follov.ing:
Quantity entering the lake.
Quantity discharged
Quantity evaporated 3C, 480,000,000
From the foregoing oalculations it is
evident that the effective reservoir ca
pacity of the lake is 30,000,000,000 gallons,
and it may fall to iO.tVJ, 000,000 in a year
of scanty "rainfall and rise to 50.000,000.
ooo in a year of abundant rain. Sir V.
Garstin accepts the figures of 30.000,000.
000 as probably obtainable. If, now. this
total available volume is concentrated
in the outflow of 100 days a regulator,
to be built at the outfall, being kept
closed for the remainder of the year
the discharga obtainable would be J00,
000,000 gallons a diy, sufficient allow
ing tor loss on the way for about 2.000,
000 acres of land under perennial irriga
tion. But perennially irrigated lands
should, for the sake of rotation of crops,
have a supply of water available at all
seasons. Now the natural winter dis
charge of the Blue Nile is, at its lowest,
sufficient for 1,000,000 acres only. If then
we make allowance for keeping up the
Blue Nile discharge in winter to 3,1'UO
gallons a second, so as to provide suffi
cient for a gross area of 1,500,000 acres,
tho quantity available for storage to use
during the loo days of summer will be
reduced to 20,000 gallons and the gross
area of land, under perennial irrigation
to about 1,500.000 acres, and this is, ap
parently, the maximum that the Soudan
can expect from the Blue Nile and Lake
Tsana. There may be other reservoir
sites besides Lane tsana sun to De dis-
covered on the Blue Nile itself or on its
tributaries, out u ravoraoio sites are
found there is still to be solved the
problem of filling them and at the fiaine
time of avoiding mud deposit in the res
ervoir. WORK ON LAKE TSANA.
As regards the work necessary to con
vert Lake Tsana into a reservoir to
store 30,000,000,000 gallons a regulator
should be built on the outflow channel
about 15 miles distant from the lake.
The regulator would have 40 openings
of nine feet eacn, with its floor sunk
12 feet below the high-water level in the
lake- it would be capable of passing
300 000,000 gallons a day and would have
to 'hold up six feet head of water. The
rock bed above and below the regulator
would have to be cut down for some
distance to form the channels of ap
proach and discharge. Were such a
reservoir made, a dam near Wad Medani
would also be necessary to provide for
the distribution of the summer water to
the lands lying in the Ghezireh, south of
Khartoum, between the White and Blue
Niles, and the lands on the right of the
BlueNile.
One of the great advantages of the
system of basin irrigation, which is be
ing built now in the Soudan, is that
large areas can be cultivated with a
very few laborers, and as the Soudan
is one'of the most sparsely populated
THE MORNING POST: SUNDAY; DECEMBER . II? 1904j
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portions' of the eajth,, that will be a big
point gained. 'jThe two great systems of
irrigation are known as basin and chan
nel irrigation. Barsin irrigation is where
the water is run off into basins some
seven or eight :r.iles apart, and from
each basin some 40 or 50 square miles of
territory are suppliec. with water, while
in the channel irrigation the water sim
ply runs down into little ducts or chan
nels at the will- of 'the farmers. The
basin irrigation is more easily controlled
and is under more even distribution, ow
ing to its centralized method of handling
the water, and in a decidedly lawless
territory, such as the Soudon, the basin
irrigation is far more practicable. At
the same time both these systems can
be carried on in the same territory. The
basin system is more expensive, but the
British engineers consider it the best,
for the Soudan for at -least a century to"
come.
Immediately to the south of Khar
toum a large number of basins are now
being erected, which should irrigate
about l.OOO.Oift) acres on that side of the
river, and also feed the Hood channels of
1.000,000 acres which will be embanked
and inundated every year in the upper
Egypt basin system. These basin lands
lie between Wad Medani, Shendy and
Berber. The Blue Niie will be relieved
of a portion of its labor after it reaches
the Maroe Islands, where the Atbara
River joins the Blue Nile and relieves
somewhat the demand on the main
stream of the Soudan.
The true agricultural future of the
tracts adjoining the Blue Nile does not,
however, lie in the direction of summer
irrigation, but rather in the development
of tliose crops which can be ripened dur
ing the summer months. The soil of
the Gherizeh and of a large portion of
the lands lying to the east of the river
much resembles that of parts of Dakota,
which produce the finest wheat. The
soil of the two countries is very similar,
but in the" Soudan one important agent
is wanting, viz.: a winter rainfall. With
out this, winter crops cannot be raised,
except in comparatively small areas ad
jacent to the river. Canal or basin irri
gation must then be supplied as a sub
stitute for the absence of rain in win
ter. Were this provided the Province of
Sennaar and the southern portion of the
Province of Khartoum might become
one of the finest wheat-producing areas
in the world.
Water in Winter Needed.
The winter discharge of the Blue Nile
falls by the end of January or Feb
ruary amounts to 2,000 gallons a second,
or about 170,000,000 gallons a day. Sir
W. Garstia reckons that "such a
discharge would be sufficient for the ir
rigation of 800,000 acres of winter crop
at the least." Considering that 170,000,000
gallons a day is the discharge at the end
of winter waterings in February, and
that the discharge is some 40,000.000 a
day in December, and some 30,000,000 a
day in January, it would be safe to
reckon the winter discharge of the Blue
Nile sufficient for 1,000,000 acres. No at
tempt has been made by Sir W. Gar
stin to calculate what use could be made
of the flood in filling basins and raising
crops by inundation of the land during
flood, as is done in Upper Egypt without
any winter waterings.
To distribute the winter water, dama
are being built similar to the great delta
dam, with the usual distributing canals
and works on both sides of the river.
The work will begin with the irrigation
of the northern .portion of the Ghezireh
and of those tracts on the eastern bank
lying to the north of Wad Medani.. Here
the country is open and comparatively
free from bush and forest. Moreover,
from its vicinity to Khartoum and the
railway, it wouid appear to lend itself
to improvement more than do the re
moter areas to the south. This dam is '
being 'constructed, at the point- where
the Rahad River joins the Blue Nile,
so that tho east bank canal wiJl be car
ried down to the north, without having
to cross any stream of impdrtance. In
facf. the engineers are solving the iden
tical problem which faced Ismail
Pasna's engineers, who were called
upon to provide for the irrigation of
the Khedive's sugar-cane estates in
Middle Egypt, alongside a chain of
basins; a problem they solved without
the help of a dam on the river, as the
existence of the corvee or unpaid labor
system overcame the difficulty of want
of ready money to pay lor the large
amount of earthwork excavated. They
dug the Ibrahimia Canal, with a head
open to the river, and at Derut, 40 miles
from Assiout, they constructed regu
lators to distribute the water between
the basin feeders and the perennially
flowing canals. The dam and Ibrahimia
Canal head at Assiout, lately con
structed, completed the scheme which is
now serving as a model for the Blue
Nile project.
Lord Cromer, in a recent interview
with the writer, figures out that the
iiAirs and locks of the entire Soudan
vtem will cost $7,000,COO. while the
canals and basins will cost. $30, 000,000.
The necessary bond issues for com
mencement of the work, amounting to
S10 000,000. were all absorbed in London'
ird New York about 18 months ago at
ft-.-.r-. Tho Intarect is at n
q very lt
little over 4 per cent., while Lord Cromer '
declares that, managed in the same
fashion as the irrigation of Egypt
proper, at the end of 10 years the reve
nues derived from the Soudan Irrigation
should pay a little over 10 per cent, on
the investment, thus leaving a clear 6
per cent, to be poured into the sinking
funds under Lord Cromer's control. The
working out of these irrigation problems
in Egypt have been the financial and
human salvation of the country. Under
Ismail Pasha the financial condition of
Egypt could not have been worse.
What We Will Do in the West.
The American people have a somewhat
similar problem for them In the great
West, which has already assumed the
attitude of a national question, both the
recent political platforms having de
clared in favor of prompt aid for the
arid lands in the West. Humanity In
general has become so accustomed to
considering that what nature does is
best that it is difficult to convince the
average American that farming where
irrigation is intelligently applied is far
more profitable and less, laborious. The
arid lands of the West when" properly
irrigated will undoubtedly form the gar-
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den spot of the . continent. The taxei
for the water can be absolutely relied
on to be less than the losses from drouth
or too heavy rainfall or from frost and
hall in territories which t epend on a
natural water supply.
The first great undertaking in the Ir
rigation line In the Soudan problem was,
of course, the construction of the fir?t
dam, 16 miles south of where the Blue
Nile flows out of Lake Tsana. At thin
point the Blue Nile is slightly over a
mile and a half in width, and just after
it leaves the body of the 4ako it has a
very heavy fall and for a. greater, por
tion of its course a rocky bed. This
means that- the engineering difficulty
shou-vi not be as severe as in the main
Nile, where the great dam had to be
constructed on a softer bottom, entail
ing deep excavations for a proper bed.
Moreover, the sides of the dam near
Lake Tsana are formed of strong rock
ribbed strata, which saves an immense
amount of concrete and granite con
struction. The loss of water, therefore,
will be comparatively small, leakage be
ing almost out of the question, and
when the system of locks Is finally con
structed in the river bed between R0"
saries and Khartoum the canals will
carry off the water on either side. Thus
a summer irrigation of Ghezireh and of
the eastern provinces will be easily and
simply effected. Supplementary storage
reservoirs will be built wherever the
small rivers of the Soudan flow into the
Blue Nile. The Atbara situation has
already been explained, and similar
reservoirs are being built for the Dmder
and Rahad Rivers.
TO EE COMPLETE BY 1910.
By 1P10, then, at the latest, the fields
of the Soudan should be green with mil
let and corn, while the most important
crop is expected to prove the fine Egyp
tian cotton, which excels the American
product, and may yet make E:ypt ona
of the wealthiest countries in the world.
France now realizos more bitterly than
ever the Importance of the Fashoda In
cident. Driven back from the upper end
of the Soudan, too wise to attempt to
coerce Abyssinia where Menelik dashed
the hopes and slaughtered .the soldiers
of Italy, France may now definitely see
the restriction of her African Influence
to that almost worthless strip of land
edging the Southern Mediterranean
coast. With an irrigated Soudan one
finds inevitably an irritated France, but
while France may prove irritable, ha
will hardly prove intractable.
The spending of what will total $51.
000,000 in forcing the waters of Lake.
Tsana to hold their dashing forces and
to gently ripple as the need arises over
the sands of the Soudan is undoubtedly
a political" triumph for Great Britain,
yet to the world at large and the Sou
danese in particular the constant en
croachment Cf Great Brjtain. howevar
prompted by a selfish absorption of ter
ritory, can only prove an unalloyed
blessing. The triumph of the Eriton in
Africa is merely a case of the survival
of the fittest. A study of British meth
ods in Egypt Is now alceady being made
by several of our finest engineers, under
the direction of the State Department
at Washington.
In British hands the spade and plough
share inevitably succeed the sabre and
the rifle. Tho picture of the undaunted
and abandoned Gordon holding his mud
walled citadel in Khartoum in 1SS0, dying
finally upon the savage speara of the
Mullah's Arab horsemen, is slowly but
surely fading to give place to a Sou
danese landscape of rose gardens and"
fields ripe for the harvest, certainty
the fairy tales of the future will be those
created by that modern magician the
engineer; those engineers who now bold
ly attack a continent and change th
face of nature as moulded thousand
i of years ago
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