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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



talked about, but till lately only a few scattered experiments have been made. But the 

 Government of Victoria sent a Cabinet Minister to Southern California to examine and 

 report upon the irrigation farms there, and one result of his successful visit was that 

 Mi-ssrs. Chaffey Brothers, who had gained much experience in irrigation works in that State, 



visited Australia, and, after a careful examina- 

 tion of the country, established on the River 

 Murray two large irrigation settlements, one 

 in Victoria and one in South Australia. These 

 are now in the initial stage of development, 

 and, if they succeed, they will introduce a new 

 epoch of Australian agriculture. Our land is 

 to a large extent of inferior quality, the rich 

 soil being mostly alluvial, or the detritus of 

 igneous rock, and even the rich soil can be 

 profitably tilled only when the produce is within 

 reach of some payable market. The introduc- 

 tion of scientific and systematic irrigation would 

 enable us to bring under tillage all land that 

 can command a supply of water. How much 

 water we can secure, how much land we can 

 treat with it, and to what extent we can meet 

 in price the demand of the world's market, are 

 questions we have yet to answer, but they are 

 questions toward which the mind of the prac- 

 tical cultivator is now set. 

 As to orchard and vineyard culture, the area available in Australia is indefinite, the 

 extent of the cultivation being simply a question of the cost of production and of profit- 

 able sale. But the quality of Australian wine is improving every year, and a successful 

 beginning has been already made with canning fruit for export. In all directions the 

 Australians are doing more than they ever did before to make the land yield its increase. 



' 



AN AUSTRALIAN " SUN-DOWNER. 



COMMERCE. 



THE essence of commerce is interchange the export by one country of its surplus 

 to pay for what it can afford to import. The first settlement in Australia was 

 simply a Government penal establishment, and, in the first instance, every necessary had 

 to be supplied. For some years the country could not support itself, and had nothing 

 whatever to pay for imports. The production of wool was the beginning of its 

 commerce ; the produce sent away before that time being too insignificant to be worth 

 mention. But the production of wool had in it an unlimited expansibility, and from the 

 day of Macarthur's first shipment until now, the market has never been glutted. Varia- 

 tions in price there have been, and therefore great variations in the wool-grower's profit, 

 but never have the world's consumers stayed the hand of the Australian producer. And 

 wool, which was the beginning of Australia's commerce, is still its greatest support, this 



