Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/386

 370 I R U I E V Poa pratentts 5 Medicago lupulina 4 Trifolium pratense 4 has also been employed in the cultivation of lucerne, of green maize fodder, and of asparagus and other market-garden produce. The notion that irrigated rice fields are unhealthy has led to the abandonment of rice-growing in. France and Portugal. But it is only when the layer of water is exceptionally shallow or discontinu ous as well as stagnant that bad effects on the health of the district have followed. It is at the close of the growing season, when during very hot weather the water no longer covers the soil, and also in the case of badly-planned and badly-managed rice fields, that there is danger from the rapid decomposition of organic matters in the earth. In Belgium irrigation is extensively practised in the district La Campine, where the whole process is carried out in the most methodical way, and under strict Government supervision. The following figures, given by Mr E. Laveleye, afford some notion of the results of Belgian irrigation. An area of 2281 hectares of barren soil (sand dunes, in fact), yielding absolutely nothing, now produces an average of about 3000 kilos, of hay per hectare, 100 kilos, being worth 10 francs. The value of the aftermath is further estimated at 100 francs per hectare, so that the total yield from one hectare becomes 400 francs, or 16. Full particulars concerning irrigation in Belgium may be learned from the treatise by J. Keelhotf, entitled Traite Pratique de V Irrigation des Prairies (Brussels, 1856). M. Keelhoff recommends the following mixture of seeds (stated in kilos, per hectare) for sowing on the Belgian sandy fields which are to be irrigated : Lolium perenne 16 Phleum pratense 6 Alopecurus pratensis 25 ffolctts Ictnattis 25 Cynosurus cristatus 5 History of Irrigation. This part of the subject is very exten sive, not merely because it deals with a very ancient art, and one very widely practised, but because the materials are very varied, and in many cases very difficult of interpretation. Still we pos sess not merely a considerable number of allusions to irrigation in ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, and Oriental records, and in Latin and Greek authors, but we have very tangible remains, still extant, of ancient irrigation works in many countries of Europe and Asia, and in some parts of northern Africa. In Egypt the art can be traced back to a very early period. In that comparatively level country an extensive system of artificial ponding reservoirs or lakes, with a network of distributing canals, was in existence at least as early as the time of Sesostris. If the art of irrigation was taught to the ancient Egyptians by the natural overflowing of the Nile, it is probable that Egypt in her turn afforded an example to Assyria and Babylon, to Carthage and Phoenicia, and also to Greece and Italy. The early history of irrigation in Persia and China has received some little elucidation in recent years, but even in the case of India our exact knowledge of the development of this art remains imperfect. What has been done during the present century in India may, however, be studied in a compact form, though rather from the financial than from the agricultural side, in Mr R. B. Buckley s Irrigation Works of India (1880), a book which has been laid under contribution in preparing the present article. Amongst Latin authors Cato, and more particularly Colu- inella, speak of the formation and management of irrigated meadows as well as of watered gardens. The Lombard kings, following the Roman practice, encouraged and extended irrigation in Italy. From Lombardy the art extended to France ; while the Moors encouraged it in Spain, Sicily, and Algeria. In Great Britain irrigation was mot extensively practised until the close of the 18th and beginning of the present century, although one Pallavicino, an Italian of the time of Mary and Elizabeth, introduced the irrigation of fields on a large scale on his estate of Babraham in Cambridgeshire. It has been thought that some of the existing English water-meadows originated in Roman engineering skill. And the extensive tracts of irrigated land in the vicinity of ancient Roman stations, as in the neighbourhood of Cirencester, lend some support to this view. The irrigation of grass land, laid out in accordance with one or other of the plans to which reference has been made, is in England a localized custom almost confined to a few southern counties : Berkshire (watered by the Kennet) ; Derbyshire (valley of the Dove) ; Dorset (the Stour in the vale of Blackmore) ; Devonshire (catchmeadows in the valleys of many livers and brooks) ; Glou- eestershire (valleys of the Churn, Severn, Avon, Lidden, &c.) ; Hampshire (the Avon, Test, and Itchen) ; Wiltshire (valley of the Avon) ; Worcestershire (certain canals). In Scotland systematic irrigation is practised to a very limited extent, and was not intro duced until the early part of the present century. It is, however, peculiarly adapted to many lands lying near rivers, which could be made most serviceable in fertilizing poor soils and bringing on an early feed of grass for sheep, while at the same time an ampler supply of hay for the winter feeding of stock could thus be secured. (A. II. C.) IRUN, a frontier town of Spain, in the province of Guipuzcoa, on the left bank of the Bidassoa, opposite the French village of Hendaye. It is the northern terminus of the Spanish Northern Railway. It has a fine Renaissance church, that of Nuestra Seilora del Juncal ; and its indus tries (iron-works, tanyarcls, potteries) are in a flourishing condition. The population in 1877 was 7040. IRVINE, a royal and parliamentary burgh, market town, and seaport of Ayrshire, Scotland, is situated on the north bank of the estuary of the Irvine river, and on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, 29 miles south- south-west of Glasgow and 10 north of Ayr. It is con nected with the suburb of Fullarton on the south side of the river by a fine stone bridge of four arches, originally built in 1746 and widened in 1827. The principal street is wido and spacious; and a number of handsome villas have been erected in the suburbs. Among the public buildings are the new town-hall, erected near the site of the old town-hall and jail, which dated from the end of the 14th century; the academy, erected in 1814; and several elegant churches. The ancient cross was removed in 1694. Two miles distant is Eglinton castle, the seat of the earls of Eglinton. The principal relics of antiquity are the square tower of Stanecastle, and the ancient Seagate castle, which contains some good specimens of Norman architec ture, notably a fine arch. A water-supply has lately been introduced at a cost of about 45,000. The in dustries include engine-making, shipbuilding, iron-founding, brass-founding, the manufacture of chemicals, brewing, and soapmaking. The shipping trade, which had consider ably declined, has been steadily increasing since about 1865. The exports consist principally of coal, iron, and chemical products, and the imports of grain, timber, lime stone, ores, and general produce. The population of the royal burgh in 1871 was 4229, and in 1881 it was 4511, that of the parliamentary burgh in the same years being 6866 and 8503. Mention is made by Hoveden of a castle of Irvine or Irwin exist ing as early as 1184. The town is styled a burgh in a document of Robert Bruce, dated February 1308, and in a later document of the same reign mention is made of a charter granted to it by Alexander II. Towards the end of the 17th century it ranked as the third shipping port in Scotland, being next to Port-Glasgow and Leith. Irvine is the birthplace of James Montgomery and John Gait. IRVING, EDWAED (1792-1834), a minister of the Scotch church, was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, 4th August 1792, By his father s side, who followed the occupation of a tanner, he was descended from a family long known in the district, and the purity of whose Scotch lineage had been tinged by alliance with French Protestant refugees ; but it was from his mother s race, the Lowthers, farmers or small proprietors in Annandale, that he seems to have derived the most distinctive features of his personality. The first stage of his education was passed at a school kept by &quot; Peggy Paine,&quot; a relation of the well- known author of the Age of Reason, after which he entered the Annan academy, taught by Mr Adam Hope, of whom there is a graphic sketch in the Reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle. Of Irving s career at school there is nothing special to record if we except a slight liking for mathe matical study, which afterwards developed itself more decidedly. Even in his early years he had a predilection for what was grave and solemn, but this tendency was also united with genial mirthfulness and a special fond ness for athletic exercises. At the age of thirteen Irving entered the university of Edinburgh. In 1809 he graduated M.A. ; and in 1810, on the recommendation of Sir John Leslie, he was chosen master of an academy newly established at Haddington, where he became the tutor of Jane Welsh, afterwards the wife of Thomas Carlyle. His appointment at Hadding ton he exchanged for a similar one at Kirkcaldy in 1812. Completing his divinity studies by a series of partial sessions, he was &quot;licensed&quot; to preach in June 1815,