This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...passage to the wells. As may bo readily supposed, wells thus filled are soon emptied; and in fact the supply is generally exhausted when a well has been drawn upon for a few hours; and from twelve to sixteen hours elapse before the supply is renewed. The mode of raising the water is by a lever, 20 to 30 feet in length, turning on an axle resting on two uprights, and having a bucket suspended by a rope or light pole from one end, which is lowered and raised by hand, the lever being weighted at the other end so as to counterbalance the filled bucket and facilitate the raising of it. When the well is deep and the lever long in proportion, the work is further aided by a man, and in some cases two men, walking backward and forwards on the lever, so as to contribute by their weight at the two ends alternately to the rapid rise and fall of the bucket. In this way about 600 cubic feet of water may easily be raised from a single well in one hour. On an average one well is sufficient for the irrigation of an acre of garden land in the driest weather where the soil is light, and of an acre and a quarter where the soil is less absorbent. As these wells never fail, being supplied from a source which is independent of rainfall, the successful raising of two, and even three crops, in the year from the same land is as much a matter of certainty as the recurrence of the seasons. Those parts of the country where the system of tank irrigation prevails surround the district lying within what is called the Mountain Zone, and extend to within a few miles of the coast, embracing about three-fourths of the area of the island, and having an elevation of from 20 to 100 feet above the sea. For the most part the rivers intersecting those low-lying districts are dry for ten or eleven m...