322 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[8 June, 1907. 



danger of exposing the cold, useless subsoil and spoiling, more or less, 

 the paddock. For the irrigator, grading and levelling — whether he waters 

 bv flooding or by furrows — are essential ; while for closer settlement, 

 though not for the extensive farmer, thev are advisable. The operations 

 are not costly, while the implements required are fairly cheap and mostly 

 within the power of a man of ordinary mechanical skill to make. 



With rough, bumpy ground, whether level or sloping, the surface must 

 be levelled by removing bumps and filling in depressions, to enable the 

 irrigator to get the water over all his cultivation. In extreme cases of 

 high bumps grading is impracticable, and fluming or banked channels 

 must be availed of. Grading mav be much reduced in amount by taking 

 advantage of all natural features to run distributarv channels, thus also 

 facilitating the work of watering. 



TIPPING AND DISTRIBUTING. 



The preliminaries of setting out and pegging are onlv necessarv in cases 

 of heavy work or where the slopes are so small as to necessitate very 

 accurate and careful grading to prevent accumulation of excess water and 

 consequent souring and surface baking. If an instrument to determine 

 the levels be used, pegs should be put in fairly frequently ; the tops 

 giving the desired surface levels. If the ground be high, a hole is dug 

 deep enough to let the top of the peg down to the correct level. On the 

 accuracy of this part of the work and on the skill of the operator depends 

 the class of grading achieved. A suitable instrument for setting out the 

 pegs at the required levels is described and figured in the Journal for 

 February, 1906. 



A good deal of useful work in levelling can be done with the plough 

 and harrows ; but in most cases, special appliances are called for. These 

 are the ordinary scoop, the buckscraper, the leveller or smoother, the clod 

 crusher, &c. The scoop is rarely used here, being replaced almost en- 

 tirely by the buckscraper, which, indeed, has successfully challenged it 

 in its own particular domain of banking and road forming. The original 

 form of the buckscraper had the handle or tail board at right angles to 

 the bottom and consequently the implement could only be worked in the 



