DAM-MAKING. 221 



a better way to become some day an independent 

 nation, or wonld be less seriously affected in the event 

 of England being involved in war with some naval 

 power, must be admitted. But this is the political side 

 of the question, which should be attended to by the 

 government, by holding out every encouragement to 

 the agriculturist. All we are here considering is the 

 probable profit and loss to the individual farmer. 



In a British colony, where the supply of bread- 

 stuffs can be drawn from any part of the world, the 

 circumstances must be very exceptionally favourable 

 to enable a farmer to grow cereals by irrigation at a 

 profit. If the works are anyways expensive, the in- 

 terest on the capital and the extra labour of irrigating, 

 coupled with the cramped nature of the cultivation, will 

 exceed the cost of carriage from better-favoured coun- 

 tries, where the crops never fail, and where cultivation 

 on an enormous scale and at a very cheap rate is 

 practicable. 



The farther inland irrigation works are constructed, 

 the better their chance of paying, as then the foreign 

 wheat is not only handicapped by the cost of ocean 

 carriage, but of the far more expensive inland carriage. 

 And since no cereals can be grown inland without 

 irrigation, this expense of carriage is a constant item in 

 its favour. 



