1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 285 



and it is anticipated that highly successful operations will soon be 

 carried out. 



The value of irrigation to the pastoralists of New South Wales' 

 cannot be over estimated; the risks of pastoralists from drouths is 

 very great. Land in the Lower Darling, in its natural state, can 

 scarcely support one sheep to ten acres; but is capable of supporting 

 more than twenty sheep to one acre when laid down in lucerne and 

 irrigated. The capabilities of irrigation in New South Wales are 

 simply immense. The great rivers of the western watershed of the 

 great Dividing Range are the Darling, Lachlan, Murray and Murrum- 

 bidgee; the Tumut, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee, 80 miles long; 

 Namoi, 600 miles; Bogan, 450 miles; Gwydir, 445 miles; Barwon, 510" 

 miles; Castlereagh, 365 miles; Mclntyre, 350 miles; Macquarie, 750* 

 miles; Warrego, 100 miles; all tributaries of the Darling which flows 

 into the Murray, 300 miles below Albury. The Murray, with the 

 branches mentioned, drains fully 500,000 square miles. It must be- 

 ranked with the large rivers of the world, and will, in the future, ex- 

 ercise a most important influence on the destiny of the colony. In 

 itself, it is 1,120 miles long, and navigable over 1,000 miles in ordinary' 

 seasons. The Murrumbidgee is navigable for 700 miles; the Darling, 

 1,700 miles. 



It has been estimated by an enthusiast in irrigation that if one 

 mile on each side of the great river Darling were cultivated, and 

 sown with lucerne under irrigation, it would produce as much fodder 

 as would save the lives of the large number of sheep that we lose 

 every period of drought. 



Mr. Gatenby, at Jem along, on the Lachlan, has demonstrated the 

 value of irrigation in growing large crops of lucerne, and storing it 

 away in silow and stacks, enabling him not only to save the lives of 

 his sheep, but actually fatten them at a time when there was no veg- 

 etation bbout. From Agricultural Gazette of Neiv South Wales, August, 

 1899. 



