pay compensation in kind for any crop that was ruined; while if he could
not pay, he and his goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields
had been damaged through his carelessness, shared the money.

The land of Babylonian farmers was prepared for irrigation before it was
sown by being divided into a number of small square or oblong tracts,
each separated from the others by a low bank of earth, the seed being
afterwards sown within the small squares or patches. Some of the banks
running lengthwise through the field were made into small channels, the
ends of which were carried up to the bank of the nearest main irrigation
canal. No system of gates or sluices was employed, and when the farmer
wished to water one of his fields he simply broke away the bank opposite
one of his small channels and let the water flow into it. He would let
the water run along this small channel until it reached the part of
his land he wished to water. He then blocked the channel with a little
earth, at the same time breaking down its bank so that the water flowed
over one of the small squares and thoroughly soaked it. When this square
was finished he filled up the bank and repeated the process for the
next square, and so on until he had watered the necessary portion of
the field. When this was finished he returned to the main channel and
stopped the flow of the water by blocking up the hole he had made in the
dyke. The whole process was, and to-day still is, extremely simple,
but it needs care and vigilance, especially in the case of extensive
irrigation when water is being carried into several parts of an estate
at once. It will be obvious that any carelessness on the part of the
irrigator in not shutting off the water in time may lead to extensive
damage, not only to his own fields, but to those of his neighbours. In
the early Babylonian period, if a farmer left the water running in his
channel, and it flooded his neighbour's field and hurt his crop, he had
to pay compensation according to the amount of damage done.

It was stated above that the irrigation-canals and little channels were
made above the level of the soil so that the water could at any point
be tapped and allowed to flow over the surrounding land; and in a flat
country like Babylonia it will be obvious that some means had to be
employed for raising the water from its natural level to the higher
level of the land. As we should expect, reference is made in the
Babylonian i