TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



IRRIGATION PROGRESS IN AUSTRALIA. 



A FORMIDABLE competitor to the American 

 farmer and orchardist is rapidly developing in 

 Australia. On the foundation stone of irrigation the 

 Australians are rearing a gigantic industrial fabric, 

 destined to make a deep impression upon the world. 

 Already they are producing large quantities of choice 

 fruit and placing some of it in the British markets in 

 competition with the best efforts thus far made by the 

 successful orchardists of California and New England. 

 Tasmanian apples stand high in the London markets, 

 and the dried apricots of the Murray river region are 

 reported to excel in quality, so far as the British mar- 

 kets may be allowed to judge, the best sent over there 

 from the United States. But all this is being devel- 

 oped from a region in almost every way similar to 

 the arid region of the United States; and those who 

 doubt the ability of irrigation to work the same won- 

 ders here as there may possibly imbibe some degree 

 of inspiration from the following citation from a late 

 number of the Australian Agriculturist : 



" Step by step the great Australian interior is being 

 invaded, and he would be a bold man who would say 

 where the movement is to stop. The old idea of the 

 land was a coast and a river-side strip of habitable 

 territory and beyond it the great Australian desert. 

 All this is being changed, however. Every successful 

 artesian well marks the site of an advanced post into 

 the forbidden land." 



Irrigation by means of artesian wells, or "bores" 

 as they are called in Australia, is rapidly on the in- 

 crease in that country as well as in various parts of 

 the United States. They have even gone so far as to 

 bore wells for the purpose of irrigating the sheep 

 pastures in Australia, and it is hoped and expected 

 to very greatly increase the wool clip of the colony 

 by this means. Enormous as the sheep interests now 

 are in that far-off corner of the world, (the number of 

 sheep being given at 130,000,000) it is expected soon 

 to vastly augment the product of both wool and mut- 

 ton by securing better pasturage through systems of 

 irrigation so generally felt to be desirable and neces- 

 sary. So sanguine are some of the best informed men 

 of the countless benefits to flow with the waters of 

 irrigation that they allege the time is not far away 

 when, through the numerous systems of irrigation 

 sooner or later to be established in the interior of the 



continent, many hundreds of bales of wool will be 

 grown then where one is now produced. But not 

 only is the wool interest and the mutton interest to be 

 thus developed, but the fruit industries will receive a 

 phenomenal development also, as well as all the col- 

 lateral activities dependent thereon. The fact is that 

 the modern world is just awakening to the possibili- 

 ties of irrigation, and a new agriculture and horticul- 

 ture are building up around us. In India, in Egypt, 

 in Argentina, in Australia and Mexico, as well as in 

 the United States, the spirit of progress in irrigation 

 is abroad; and we Americans are quite likely to be 

 distanced in this race unless we take hold of the 

 great problem as presented by the arid belt of West- 

 ern America, and work it out upon its merits, along 

 the lines of a broad and comprehensive statesman- 

 ship, unhampered by local jealousies and unchecked 

 by sectional or partisan rancor. The opportunity of the 

 century is now before us to lay the foundations broad 

 and deep, of the mightiest and fairest structure of 

 modern times the great fabric of irrigation as ex- 

 emplified upon millions of small, intensely cultivated 

 farms, the homes of millions upon millions of happy 

 and contented citizens. All this is no figment of the 

 imagination merely, but an easy possibility within the 

 grasp of the present younger generation of American 

 voters. Shall it be realized ? An affirmative answer 

 must depend upon the enterprise, persistence, honesty 

 of purpose and untiring perseverance of the men of 

 Arid America. 



DOES FARMING PAY? 



Does farming pay? is a question always on the lips 

 of the men hunting for facts to sustain their theories, 

 or of others seeking theories to account for facts. 



It is very hard to arrive at a comprehensive and 

 truthful answer to the general question. It depends 

 upon so many conditions that, as a matter of fact, in 

 its present stage of development, agriculture has 

 come to be regarded by many as the least profitable , 

 of the great occupations of men. Markets are un- 

 certain and prices low; but were producers better 

 able to control the conditions of production, as re- 

 gards the supply of moisture, the whole phase of 

 American agriculture would be changed in one sea- 

 son. Irrigation farming does pay, and will continue 

 to pay good profits when dry land husbandry will have 

 been driven to the wall. 



