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472 LIFE.
less, industry ultimately succeeded, and gardeners planted their shoots
of the cactus, which grew up very quickly and hid the reddish-colored
earth behind the impenetrable thickets of their thorny leaves, which shine
in the sun with a metallic brilliancy. Fig-trees creeping along the ground
insinuate their long roots into the interstices of the rocks. In certain
spots even the vine thrives and bears fruit on these hard scoriae, which
look almost like blocks of iron. Other kinds of lava, on account of the
friability of their texture, and the quantity of ashes which are blown on
to them by the wind, are adapted for a rudimentary kind of cultivation
in the space of a few years. Of this kind are the |ava-flows of Zaffarana,
which burst from the bosom ofthe earth in 1852 and 1853; in the hallows the inhabitants of the villages planted some brooms and furze within
five years after the eruption.* But whether the scoriaa of lava be either
friable or hard, they will nevertheless ultimately become transformed into
vineyards and gardens. As persevering as the ants, who seem never
weary in rebuilding the heaps destroyed by the feet of those who walk
over them, the peasants of Mount Etna begin again, from century to century, their persevering work, and, after every flow of stone which covers
their fields, they lay out new meadows no less verdant than the gardens
which had disappeared.
Among all the agricultural works which have changed the aspect of the
earth, channels of irrigation are those which, iii past ages, have been the
most magnificently planned and carried out. The Egyptians, blocked up
by the sand of the desert, and setting their hearts, so to speak, upon the
mud of the Nile, from which they believed their ancestors had sprung,
made irrigation one of their great sacred rites; their reservoirs, which
were dug out for the management of the flood-waters, must have required
as much labor as the useless ostentatious pyramids.f In Lombardy and
Tuscany, also, the general irrigation of the country, under the direction
of syndicates, was practiced with great skill, and the grandest names both
of artists and savants, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Galileo, and Torricelli, are associated with the history of this portion of the
art of agriculture. In the present time this work is being carried on with
great activity in all the countries of the south of Europe, and in many
other regions of the world which are liable to suffer from aridity. Before
they emerge on to the plains, nearly all the mountain streams of Piedmont, Provenpe, Roussillon, and Mediterranean Spain, are almost entirely
drawn off on to the fields, and only during showers or the melting of the
snow the stony beds are filled up with muddy water, which the thirsty
land very soon absorbs. Great rivers, such as the Po, the Nile, and the
Durance, which are utilized for irrigation, diminish in quantity of water
every year; and if the ambition of agriculturists is realized, they will
ultimately disappear altogether. Love, the engineer, is desirous that all
the rivers of France should be done away with as soon as possible by
* Charles Lyell, Philosophical Transactions, 1858.
f See The Earth, the chapter entitled Rivers.
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000521 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 472 LIFE. less, industry ultimately succeeded, and gardeners planted their shoots of the cactus, which grew up very quickly and hid the reddish-colored earth behind the impenetrable thickets of their thorny leaves, which shine in the sun with a metallic brilliancy. Fig-trees creeping along the ground insinuate their long roots into the interstices of the rocks. In certain spots even the vine thrives and bears fruit on these hard scoriae, which look almost like blocks of iron. Other kinds of lava, on account of the friability of their texture, and the quantity of ashes which are blown on to them by the wind, are adapted for a rudimentary kind of cultivation in the space of a few years. Of this kind are the |ava-flows of Zaffarana, which burst from the bosom ofthe earth in 1852 and 1853; in the hallows the inhabitants of the villages planted some brooms and furze within five years after the eruption.* But whether the scoriaa of lava be either friable or hard, they will nevertheless ultimately become transformed into vineyards and gardens. As persevering as the ants, who seem never weary in rebuilding the heaps destroyed by the feet of those who walk over them, the peasants of Mount Etna begin again, from century to century, their persevering work, and, after every flow of stone which covers their fields, they lay out new meadows no less verdant than the gardens which had disappeared. Among all the agricultural works which have changed the aspect of the earth, channels of irrigation are those which, iii past ages, have been the most magnificently planned and carried out. The Egyptians, blocked up by the sand of the desert, and setting their hearts, so to speak, upon the mud of the Nile, from which they believed their ancestors had sprung, made irrigation one of their great sacred rites; their reservoirs, which were dug out for the management of the flood-waters, must have required as much labor as the useless ostentatious pyramids.f In Lombardy and Tuscany, also, the general irrigation of the country, under the direction of syndicates, was practiced with great skill, and the grandest names both of artists and savants, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Galileo, and Torricelli, are associated with the history of this portion of the art of agriculture. In the present time this work is being carried on with great activity in all the countries of the south of Europe, and in many other regions of the world which are liable to suffer from aridity. Before they emerge on to the plains, nearly all the mountain streams of Piedmont, Provenpe, Roussillon, and Mediterranean Spain, are almost entirely drawn off on to the fields, and only during showers or the melting of the snow the stony beds are filled up with muddy water, which the thirsty land very soon absorbs. Great rivers, such as the Po, the Nile, and the Durance, which are utilized for irrigation, diminish in quantity of water every year; and if the ambition of agriculturists is realized, they will ultimately disappear altogether. Love, the engineer, is desirous that all the rivers of France should be done away with as soon as possible by * Charles Lyell, Philosophical Transactions, 1858. f See The Earth, the chapter entitled Rivers. |
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