206 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



settlements, and while these areas when totalled reach 

 figures which are surprising, there has so far been a 

 lack of any systematic irrigation development. 



ARTESIAN SUPPLY. 



Most of our large works are carried on by 

 the Government and amongst others we have 

 a Water Conservation Department which has been 

 in existence for some eight or nine years, but al- 

 though several large schemes have been outlined and 

 extensive surveys of the whole country made, none of 

 these schemes have as yet been authorized. Another 

 Government Department is that of Public Watering 

 Places and Artesian Boring which has the supplying 

 of water along the traveling stock routes of the coun- 

 try, either by conserving the natural rainfall in large 

 excavated tanks up to 20,000 cubic yards capacity or 

 by artesian bores or wells, and in view of the fact that 

 more than two-thirds of the country is devoted wholly 

 to pastoral purposes, it will be understood that this 

 matter of stock-water supply is one of great impor- 

 tance. During the last few years the artesian boring, 

 both by the government and by private pastoralists 

 have been very successful, large supplies of first-class 

 water having been struck over the greater part of the 

 dry western districts, having an average annual rain- 

 fall of from ten to sixteen inches only. Trial cultiva- 

 tions of a few acres irrigated with the artesian water 

 from the bores have been very successful, and the 

 Government have now in hand the establishment of 

 irrigation colonies around the bores which give the 

 largest supplies. The first of these settlements at 

 Pera Bore near Bourke, a town in the center of the 

 dryest part of the colony and the present terminus of 

 the Great Western Railway, has been cut up into 



twenty acre blocks and was thrown open on June 1, 

 1895, for occupation on nominal terms, and should the 

 demand prove as great as expected, more land in the 

 vicinity of other bores will be thrown open. A Govern- 

 ment Experimental Farm is to be established at each 

 settlement under experienced irrigationists and should 

 prove of great assistance to the settlers, while from the 

 large area over which this artesian water is now proved 

 to exist it is expected that these settlements will 

 largely help in settling people in comfort on the 

 land. 



THE DARLING RIVER. 



Another new scheme in which the first step 

 has been taken, is the locking of the Darling 

 River, the longest river in Australia, flowing 

 through the center of the dry country. This work is 

 being carried out by the Water Conservation Depart- 

 ment and a tender for the first of the locks has been 

 accepted, surveys for others are being proceeded with, 

 and it is hoped that in the course of a few years, 

 by this system of locking, the river will be rendered 

 available both for navigation and irrigation all the 

 year round, giving both the means of producing and 

 cheap water carriage for the produce to the seaboard. 

 With the dry climate and fertile soil of our back coun- 

 try, by using the best scientific methods we expect in 

 the course of a few years to be able to produce large 

 quantities of fruit which preserved or dried will suc- 

 cessfully compete with such products from other 

 parts, while the large amount of fodder able to be 

 grown will keep our stock from dying off in hundreds 

 of thousands as they do now every few years or so in 

 times of drought, and largely increase the stock carry- 

 ing capacity of the country. 



IRRIGATION IN SOUTHWEST TEXAS. 



IN CONNECTION WITH THE REMOVAL OF THE ARANSAS PASS BAR. 



BY J. S. ATKINS. 



THE State Irrigation Convention held in San An- 

 tonio last fall awakened the people of Texas 

 for the first time to the fact that irrigation in this 

 country would be one of the grandest things on earth. 

 For with its assistance and the advantage we have 

 over other places with our early and late seasons, 

 we can flood the markets of the United States with 

 fruits and vegetables long before and long after any 

 other State in the Union can begin to do so. It was 

 a common thing last spring to see, during the months 

 of April and May, as many as 800 boxes of vegetables 

 leaving this town, Portland, of a morning, and this so 

 far without irrigation, and on a very limited acreage of 

 land. What then will they do when they do have it? 

 There are two irrigation plants in Live Oak county, 

 the county northwest of this one, and another in 

 course of construction. I know that last year they 

 tried irrigating some corn ground, and on four acres 

 so irrigated they raised 440 bushels of fine corn. To 

 show the earliness and lateness of shipments from 

 this point, I quote the following data taken from the 

 Express Company's books here as follows: 



Wax Beans, last shipment, December 26, 1894. 



Tomatoes, last shipment, February 1, 1895. 



English Peas, first shipment, April 3, 1895. 



Wax Beans, first shipment, April 14, 1895. 



Grapes, first shipment, June 25, 1895. 



I would like to mention that these shipments were 

 fully three weeks late, owing to a lack of rainfall. 

 What more then is needed to convince people that 

 this country, irrigated, can beat any other portion of 

 the United States in earliness, lateness and amount of 

 production? People often question the amount that 

 can be realized from the sale of vegetables raised on 

 an acre of ground, when they are told that $100 an 

 acre is a common thing. 



I can vouch for the following being the truth: A 

 friend of mine raised and sold over $1,500 worth of 

 vegetables from fifteen acres of land this spring, with- 

 out irrigation. I leave it to your imagination what he 

 would have sold if he had irrigated. When it is taken 

 into consideration that two crops can be made on the 

 same piece of ground in one year, you will readily see 

 that my figures of $100 an acre are very reasonable. 



