242 SOILS 



irrigating land in a humid climate must not be 

 overlooked ; it is the danger of a heavy rain coming 

 after an irrigation, flooding or soaking the land. 

 This condition never arises in an arid country. 

 If the soil is heavy and tenacious this is a serious 

 objection ; but if it is sandy or loamy, so that water 

 quickly drains from it, there is little danger of 

 injury and these are the Eastern soils that are 

 usually benefited most by irrigation. The cost 

 of building irrigation systems should usually be 

 less in a humid region than in an arid region, 

 because the supply of running water is larger and 

 more widelv distributed, but the cost of applying 

 the water is usually greater. The diverting of 

 water from Eastern streams, however, is attended 

 with much uncertainty, because of riparian rights, 

 which are firmly adhered to in the humid East, 

 but usually set aside in the arid West. This fact 

 has discouraged many attempts to build irrigation 

 systems in the East. However, springs can be 

 utilised and most irrigation on a small scale in the 

 East is by pumping from springs and wells. 



It seems likely that the advantages of irrigation 

 in the humid sections of our country have been 

 over-estimated. In a majority of cases better 

 preparation of the soil before planting, so that it 

 will hold more water, and more thorough tillage 

 of the soil after planting, so that little water will 

 be lost by evaporation, are likely to be a more 

 practicable solution of the drought question than 

 irrigation. In other words, the principles of dry 

 farming are likely to be as successful in mitigating 

 the effects of drought in humid sections as they are 

 in making the most of a scanty rainfall in semi- 

 arid sections. Better tillage, rather than more 

 water, is the key to the drought situation in the 



