IRRIGATION FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. 139 



is obtainable from Irrigation Engineers, and the farmer should have 

 little hesitation in embarking upon a scheme recommended by 

 engineers of undoubted qualifications and experience in methods 

 applicable to this sub-continent. , 



RESULTS OF IRRIGATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN BREEDE VALLEY. 



During the last decade irrigational development has been 

 steadily proceeding in the Breede Valley from a small beginning, 

 whereas to-day it is one of the principal irrigating centres i^ the 

 Union. To watch this development and its influences upon the 

 farming community is of much interest. The enhanced value of 

 the ground with the attendant high prices paid for ostrich farms 

 have induced many landowners to dispose of their properties and 

 purchase farms where land is cheaper in the North. However 

 unwise it may appear for a man to sell his farm and leave the dis- 

 trict, his home and his friends, this roving disposition is a valuable 

 asset to the community, for the farmer is already an irrigationist, 

 even though in a small way. He therefore will continue and use 

 his irrigational experience in the arid districts and spread his 

 knowledge amongst a stock-farming community, where a few mor- 

 gen of cultivated land is a valuable adjunct to stock-raising. 

 Whereas the purchaser, having paid a large sum for the property, 

 and having bought the farm with a view to its further development 

 and its large possibilities, again carries the advancement a step 

 further, and there is a gradual growth and progress of 

 improvement. 



FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION FARMING. 



In the early stages, when the water has been delivered to the 

 irrigable lands, the financial problem causes anxiety to the owner, 

 who is willing to develop his farm and who has not the necessary 

 capital to tide over the first few years. To overcome this financial 

 difficulty, some owners dispose of one half or a portion of the 

 irrigable land. This, in many cases, is indeed a hardship, where 

 a farmer has several sons, who, in a few years, must be settled 

 upon the farm. There is at the present moment a most urgent 

 necessity for funds at a low rate of interest to be advanced for 

 development of irrigation farming in its initial stages. These 

 advances should be made in an unostentatious and ready manner 

 to deserving applicants, and so retain men who are irrigationists 

 upon that class of farming to which they have become accustomed, 

 and not drive those who are skilled in water leading, and its 

 attendant mode of cultivation, to pastoral pursuits. 



COMBINATION BY LANDOWNERS. 



The development in the Breede Valley has accentuated the 

 indispensability of combined effort by the landowners. Most of 

 the minor projects, where individual effort can overcome the finan- 

 cial problem incident to the construction of a scheme have already 

 been completed. 



