Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1901 — THE DAMMING OF THE NILE. [ARTICLE]

THE DAMMING OF THE NILE.

Will Exercise an Important Influence on World Commerce. The completion of the dam across the Nile, aear Assouan, begins the transformation of lower Egypt, and will introduce a new and important force in world commerce. How to make the waters of the Nile, a capricious and uncertain stream, regularly irrigate and fertilize the great valley has been a problem of the centuries. A few years ago, says the Milwaukee Sentinel, engineers who had carefully studied the subject, suggested to the Egyptian government that this result could be secured by constructing a series of darns, which should serve as storage reservoirs. A dam was built in the Delta country, south of Cairo. It was successful, and the region of the Delta was supplied with regular and abundant irrigation. Without delay a second dam was begun at Assouan, 700 miles up the Nile valley, and, with this completed, work will shortly begin at a point some 36 miles farther south on a third. These three dams will furnish storage sufficient to irrigate the entire Nile valley, notwithstanding all variations of climate, and will bring one of the richest reaches of land on the globe into steady agricultural use. How important this advantage will be is shown by the cotton crop. Egypt now producesone-tenth of the world’* supply. Permanent irrigation and modern methods and implements are expected to increase many t imes over, and to supply British manufacturers at prices far below those they have heretofore paid for American cottoix The effect on our cotton growing and manufacture will be direct and important