?6o 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[8 May, 1908. 



50,000 acres now irrigated. To prepare the land and irrigate and harvest 

 the crop will require more than twice as many men as now live in this 

 ^'alle3^ There must be far more new houses for men and new barns for 

 crops than in the Italian district, because there are far less to begin with. 



In many ways we are making satisfactory progress in doing this. Every 

 new butter factory is a preparation for Trawool. E\ery acre of orchard 

 or vineyard planted is a step in the right direction. Wyuna will be the 

 forerunner of other closer settlements, and is a step toward using the water 

 which the Goulburn storages will render available. There is. however, 

 one irrigation crop which deserves more attention. I propose to discuss 



HAV LOADER FOR ELEVATING ON WAGGONS. 



it, and shall take as my text, "INIake hay while the sun shines," and es- 

 pecially make lucerne hay. This plant has been so long known to agri- 

 culture that history does not record its beginnings. It is older than the 

 Ciimpaigns of Xerxes, for his war horses were fed on it. It was intro- 

 duced into Peru over 400 years ago by the conquering Spaniards, and the 

 good it has done in that country since in some measure atones for the 

 miseries the conquest wrought. It is not only one of the oldest plantis 

 adopted by man for his service, but in warm dry climates is the best. 



Lucerne hay is the leading crop in the irrigated districts of America. 

 It is grown for hay rather than pasture in the irrigated districts of 

 Southern Europe. Why is it so little grotvn here? Its absence in the 



