I2O 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



sity, but it would be a very profitable enterprise. A 

 creamery and cheese factory combined, capable of 

 making 500 pounds of butter and 1,000 pounds of 

 cheese per day, with necessary refrigerating ma- 

 chinery, handling the milk of 1,000 cows, can be built 

 for $6,000. A smaller one, handling the milk of 500 

 cows per day, can be built for |5,000. If the refriger- 

 ating machinery was omitted and ice used $1,000 

 could be deducted from above costs. Good authori- 

 ties on cow-feeding state that green alfalfa, or alfalfa 

 hay, without roots, will produce fifty pounds of but- 

 ter to the equivalent of a ton of hay, with good cows. 

 At 20 cents per pound this would be $10 to the ton of 

 hay. At six tons per acre the income from alfalfa would 

 be $60 per acre for butter, in addition to about $10 

 for the skim-milk as hog feed. With larger crops of 

 hay, better milk cows, and higher prices for products, 

 the income from an acre of alfalfa may easily 

 reach $150. The cow and the creamery have the ad- 

 vantage of enabling the colonist of small means to 

 make a living from the date of his arrival on the 

 lands, if a fodder crop is provided in advance, as it 

 would be. 



It is the opinion of your committee that a creamery 

 should be the first industry created. 



REFRIGERATING PLANT. 



A refrigerating plant, capable of caring for the 

 products of the creamery, pork-packing house and 

 the local butcher's market, with space to store several 

 carloads of fruit, could be built for $3,000. A larger 

 one would be of great advantage in the mild climate 

 of the fruit-growing districts of the Arid Region in 

 preserving fruit and vegetables in the fall and carry- 

 ing them late in the fall, when they would bring very 

 high prices. The expenditure for the industries 

 mentioned would be as follows, the creamery and 

 packing-house using the general refrigerating plant. 



Creamery $ 4,000 



Refrigerating plant 3,000 



Preserving and canning plant 3,700 



Small pork-packing house 4,000 



Starch factory 2,500 



Evaporator 1,000 



Total $18,200 



A beet-sugar factory would be desirable, but as the 

 smallest commercial plant costs about $250,000, it is 

 impracticable for these colonies. 



AN AUSTRALIAN COLONY.' 



THE area commanded by the Rodney Irrigation 

 and Water Supply Trust in the Colony of Vic- 

 toria, Australia, is about 260,000 acres, and the 

 object is to provide an efficient stock and domestic 

 supply throughout the whole area, together with a 

 system of irrigation. 



The trust has an authorized loan from the govern- 

 ment of ;242,878 (over a million dollars), or which 

 there has been advanced and expended about ^100,- 

 000 (about half a million dollars). Payment of 

 interest at 4% per cent, per annum has been sus- 

 pended up to the present, likewise sinking fund at 

 1% per cent, per annum. The trust, however, 

 obtain a revenue by striking a differential rate of 

 Is. 6d. in the 1 on all rateable property in the 

 area. There is also a fair amount obtained from the 

 sale of water for stock purposes. The water is ob- 

 tained from the Goulburn river, diverted by the 



national channel from the Goulburn Weir, con- 

 structed and maintained by the Department of Vic- 

 torian Water Supply. 



The district, which is eminently suitable for irriga- 

 tion and fruit-growing purposes, has made rapid 

 strides during the past few years since the works of 

 the trust have been in progress. An irrigation col- 

 ony called Ardmona, containing 1,000 acres, has 

 been formed within the area, which is rapidly becom- 

 ing settled. Ardmona is commanded by the trust 

 channels, and the dried-up paddocks of a few years 

 ago are now smiling with verdure and studded 

 with the neat little homes of prosperous irrigators. 

 About 300 acres are planted with vines and fruit trees 

 and are now under irrigation. One of the blocks is 

 devoted to the growth of nursery stock. The Chief 

 Engineer of water supply reports that on a farm near 

 Ardmona, within the area of the Rodney Trust, there 

 are sixty acres laid down in lucerne, divided into 

 paddocks and kept under irrigation. This land has 

 maintained eight sheep to the acre throughout the 

 summer. The lucerne crop lasts for several months. 

 The same farm has sixteen acres under mixed fruits 

 and twenty acres under raisin vines, all irrigated 

 and bearing a heavy crop of fruit of exceptionable 

 quality. 



Sorghum Cultivation. A great deal of atten- 

 tion is being paid to the cultivation of this as a for- 

 age crop in Texas. A.M. Soule, of the Texas Ex- 

 perimental Station, says: The importance and value 

 of the sorghum crop does not seem to be fully ap- 

 preciated. The variety of uses it can be put to is 

 very great; for instance, it makes a superior form of 

 silage, is probably the most prolific and persistent of 

 our soiling crops, makes a well-relished hay of high 

 feeding value, yields luxuriant pasturage and is ex- 

 ceedingly hardy. An example of this last trait is 

 found in the fact that it withstood the effects of the 

 hot winds that prevailed over Texas for four days 

 without cessation during the past summer, while the 

 corn and other forage crops were burned to a crisp. 

 It is said that such a destructive wind has not swept 

 over the country in the previous thirty years of its 

 history. This, combined with its well-known ability 

 to resist drouth,' renders it par excellence the forage 

 crop for countries subject to such conditions. 



From two or three cuttings a year, it will yield from 

 ten to twenty tons of fodder to the acre from each; 

 the maximum yields reach twenty-five to thirty tons. 

 This is equal to four to eight tons of cured hay, whi^h 

 is a nutritious food tor all stock. 



Too Much. Water Used. A common fault with 

 irrigators is the use of too much water. So glaring 

 is this fault, in fact, that it may be safely stated that 

 most men using irrigating water greatly overdo the 

 matter, and fail of best results by their too-liberal 

 use of the irrigating fluid. It is a very common 

 sight in the irrigated regions to see a large quantity 

 of waste water running away from orchards or fields, 

 carrying much fertilizing material to be finally de- 

 posited far away from the land of the man who 

 bought it, or perhaps in the sea itself. So common 

 is it thus to mismanage irrigating water, that a con- 

 stant source of neighborhood trouble is the waste 

 water of one irrigator finding its way to some place 

 on his neighbor's land where it is not wanted. In 

 other cases, the neighbor on the lower side reaps con- 

 siderable advantage in receiving much of the fertil- 



*From the regular Australian correspondent of THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



