Irrigation Farming in Australia. 15 



From Berembed a diversion canal takes off from a natural creek 

 north and north-west towards Gun-bar. The rolling wheat downs 

 from Junee to Narandera have given place to a level fertile floor, 

 with only the suggestion of a rise in it here and there. This is the 

 Yanco area, and the Gunbar canal runs through it. The extent of 

 country ultimately irrigated at Yanco will probably be about 250,000 

 acres of first-class land. There is enough water available to turn 

 these vast plains into a glorious garden. And in a few years that 

 garden will begin to appear. Already from the top of the Leeton 

 water tower one can see stretching out on every side neat squares 

 of green, strict rows of young trees, and small white houses irregu- 

 larly dotted about them, the whole scheme held together by long 

 bright glancing canals which run right across the picture. 



As in the Victorian settlements, and indeed all along the 

 Murray valley, so here, too, the climate is unsurpassed from both an 

 agricultural and a health point of view. The summer heat is dry, 

 and has no enervating effect, and a man can work throughout the 

 hottest days without bodily discomfort. Plant growth continues 

 throughout the whole year. There are no stock diseases or fruit 

 pests. The absence of lain should there be one does not matter. 

 So great an authority on agriculture as Sir Rider Haggard, when he 

 visited Yanco last year and addressed the settlers, said of these 

 areas : 



AN EXTENSIVE VICTORIAN IRRIGATION SCHEME. 



" I want to speak a few words as to what a neighbourhood you 

 have. I have been this morning for miles round the Experimental 

 Farm, and I have seen many of the blocks of land which have been 

 taken up, and I can only tell you that I, who have had some experi- 

 ence in these matters, and have studied the development of many 



