^/^.^. 3, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette vf N.SJF. 611 



and destroys the liumus in the soil, it also attacks and combines with silica 

 and produces silicate of soda — a substance known in domestic circles as 

 " waterglass," which is used on account of its cementing; properties for pre- 

 serving eggs. It is also used for cementing together sand, in the manufacture 

 of grindstbnes. 



The cementing and hardening properties of the silicate thus formed are 

 very clearly seen when testing the capillarity of soil which has been irrigated 

 with bore-water. The capillary rise of water in unirrigated soil (light loam) 

 from Pera is 10 inches in three hours, and only | of an inch in twenty-four 

 hours in the same class of soil which had been irrigated with alkaUne water. 



The capillary power of unirrigated soil (stiff clay) from the vicinity of the 

 Moree bore is 3| inches in three hours, and soil selected from a channel along 

 which the artesian water had been running, showed a capillary rise of f of 

 an inch in three hours, and only li inch in forty-eight hours. 



It has also been noticed at the Moree farm lucerne plots, where the water 

 was run along furrows 8 to 10 feet apart, that before the centre was soaked 

 the plants near the furrows were drowned, unless great care was exercised. 

 It was, therefore, found necessary to resort to flooding quickly with a good 

 flow of water. 



The estimated area of the great artesian basin is .364,000,000 acres {more 

 tluni ten times the area of England), 53,000,000 acres being situated in New 

 South Wales. A method which would successfully and economically correct 

 the injurious effects of artesian water would be of immense value; while a 

 scheme that would not only correct those evils, but convert the soil into a 

 condition of extreme fertility, would be of incalculable value. 



Milton Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soil, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, when writing of American alkaline soils in Bulletin No. 21, 

 says: "The subject of alkali has been a source of much anxiety to our 

 western people, and the vast injury that has been done through the occurrence 

 of alkali has prejudiced outsiders in irrigation enterprises to such an extent 

 that in many communities the subject has been exceedingly unpopular, and 

 any reference to it in connection with certain localities has been vigorously 

 opposed and criticised. 



" The value of this alkali land is nominal, the greater part of it being 

 priced at $10 per acre or less. Were this land in a fertile condition, its value 

 under irrigation would be at least $75 per acre. If it can be brought into 

 a state of fertility its value will, therefore, be increased $65 (£13) per acre." 



A scheme which would increase the value of that portion of the 361,000,000 

 acres suitable for irrigation by, say, £1 per acre, is worth more than a passing 

 thought; in fact, it would be an achievement of the greatest national 

 importance. 



It occurred to me that the alkali in our artesian waters could be neutralised 

 by nitric acid, and thereby converted into a valuable fertiliser — nitrate of 

 soda — upon which the world has been spending, for agricultural purposes, 

 something like £14,000,000 per year. In order to test this idea in a practica 



