Page:Farmers of forty centuries.djvu/318

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300
Rice Culture in the Orient.

in Fig. 173. Some of these wheels are ten feet in diameter, depending upon the hight the water must be lifted.

Irrigation by animal power is extensively practiced in each of the three countries, employing mostly the type of power wheel shown in Fig. 158. The next illustration, Fig. 174, shows the most common type of shelter seen in Chekiang and Kiangsu provinces, which are there very numerous. We counted as many as forty such shelters in a semicircle of half a mile radius. They provide comfort for the animals during both sunshine and rain, for under no conditions must the water be permitted to run low on the rice fields, and everywhere their domestic animals receive kind, thoughtful treatment.


Fig. 171.—Three-man Chinese foot-power and wooden chain pump extensively used for irrigation in various parts of China.


In the less level sections, where streams have sufficient fall, current wheels are in common use, carrying buckets near their circumference arranged so as to fill when passing