304 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



POPULARISING IRRIGATION. 



Importing American Farmers. 



MR. SWINBURNE'S IDEA. 



"What is wanted," says the Minister of Agricul- 

 ture (Mr. Swinburne), "in order to popularize the sys- 

 tem of irrigation in Victoria is an infusion of 'new- 

 blood' from the countries where irrigation has been 

 practiced on a large scale for many years past, and 

 where the application of water to the soil has been fol- 

 lowed by whole districts and provinces in connection 



ing our irrigation expert, Mr. Mead, from America, to 

 teach the practice of cultivation with the aid of water, 

 we should make an endeavor to secure the introduction 

 of practical irrigation farmers from the Western States 

 of America and Europe, not as official teachers to our 

 farmers, but as actual operators as farmers them- 

 selves through whose example, in such districts as they 

 may settle in, neighboring farmers will be able to learn, 

 slowly perhaps, but none the less surely, what Victorian 

 soil in certain localities can produce when treated as 

 the soil is treated in other parts of the world. By 

 securing a leaven, so to speak, of irrigation farmer's 

 throughout many of our agricultural districts we shall 

 in the long run be able to 'leaven the whole,' and con- 

 vert, in this practical way, the several districts into 

 genuine irrigation settlements, which few of them are 

 at present. 



"The question is," Mr. Swinburne continued, "how 



^7::y^>/'^^ 



SECTION fIT FI-H. 



with many classes of agricultural enterprise. Experi- 

 mental demonstrations of the value of irrigation are 

 useful, and so are lessons and lectures on the subject 

 of how and when to irrigate; but nothing is equal to 

 the teachings of actual experience. 



"My investigations into the general question of ir- 

 rigation in other parts of the world, and my study of 

 the matter in connection with trials made by my de- 

 partment more especially in connection with the cur- 

 rent series of lucerne-growing tests, made under the 

 direction of Mr. Mead have convinced me that de- 

 velopments in irrigation must be made here as a sine 

 qua non to our agricultural success. One reason irriga- 

 tion has not made greater headway in Australia is that 

 agriculture has, so far, been conducted on British lines. 

 We are an essentially British community, and we have 

 introduced to this country the agricultural system of 

 the land our people came from. Irrigation is not prac- 

 tised in Britain, hence our people in the earlier days of 

 settlement here knew nothing about the art; and, hav- 

 ing followed the dry system for so many years, it i? 

 hard for the great majority, even in the irrigation dis- 

 tricts, to get otit of the old groove. 



"My idea, therefore, is that, in addition to engag- 



THE AUSTIN IB 



can this leaven be best secured ? I have conversed with 

 Mr. Mead on the subject of the liklihood of inducing 

 farmers from America to come to Victoria, and he has 

 told me that there are hundreds of farmers over there 

 who would readily throw in their lot with us if they 

 but knew that the land here was as well adapted as it 

 is to the practice of irrigation ; for, as a matter of fact, 

 it is much more productive in many parts than the soil 

 of a large number of prosperous irrigation districts in 



