Journal of Agriculture. 



[8 Feb., 1908. 



There are two essentials to this method of irrigation ; the first is to 

 have the levees low enough and broad enough to permit of farm machinery 

 crossing over them, and the second is to make the checks small because in 

 Victoria the surface soil does not permit of much grading to secure a level 

 surface in the checked area. Another reason in Victoria for having small 

 checks is the heat of summer and the need of removing the water quickly 

 after the soil has become sufficiently moistened. From \ an acre to 

 i^ acres is about the right size. In laying out the field in checks it 

 should first be ploughed as deep as possible, without turning up the 

 sub-soil, and on this lay out contour lines which connect points of equal 

 elevation. 



Fig. 4. Home-made Leveller. 



Owing to the slight slope of much of the irrigable land in Victoria 

 the difference in level of any two successive contours cannot be much more 

 than 2 inches w'ithout making the levees too far apart ; they should not be 

 over 4 chains. The contours may be located wdth an engineer's level or 

 the cheap drainage levels now being sold to farmers or by means of a 

 home-made frame on which a carpenter's spirit level is fixed. (Fig. 4.) 

 When the contour lines have been staked out they should be plainly 

 marked by running a plough furrow along the stakes. The irrigator can 

 use some judgment in rounding out the angles when he makes furrows. 





Fig. 5. Low and Broad Check Levee. 



a. Appearance of levee when first made. 



b. Appearance of levee after ploughing and harrowing. 



The earth which makes the levees on these contours should not be obtained 

 by creating furrows along their margins, as is so often done, but by scraping 

 off the tops of knolls or hummocks. If more earth is needed, take it 

 from the highest co.mer of the check so that w^hen the levees are built 

 the bottom of tKe inside is fairly level. After the contour checks have 

 been built cross levees are put to divide the checked areas into basins of 

 nearly equal and convenient size. In making the checks no instrument is 

 better than the buck scraper, which is illustrated and described in Mr. 

 A. S. Kenyon's article on Levelling and Grading in the Jmne, September 

 and December numbers (1907) of the Journal. The rorary scraper, made 

 and used in Australia, will also do good work. A good home-made scraper 

 is illustrated and described on pages 532 and 533 in Mr. Kenyon's 

 article in the September issue. 



The field is then ploughed, harrowed and seeded in the usual way, the 

 checks being seeded with the rest of the field. The le\'ees when first 

 built will be relatively high (about 12 inches) and steep, but the subsequent 



