THE IERIGATION AGE. 



393 



the products for this district during the last year was 

 about $200 an acre. Mildura is the only important district 

 in Victoria where the irrigation works are privately 

 owned. All the others are state works on which the 

 state has expended up to the present time about $20,000,- 

 000. These state works provide water for stock and 

 domestic purposes with limited irrigation for about 11,- 

 000,000 acres of land, of which, over 1,000,000 acres will 

 be fully irrigated when development has been completed. 



The Goulburn Scheme. 



The largest of the state works is known as the Goul- 

 burn Scheme. It is designed to utilize the water of the 

 Goulburn river, the largest river in Victoria. From a mas- 

 sive granite diversion weir, fifty feet high, two main canals, 

 one on either side of the river, have been built as the main 

 supply channels for a fertile plain about 100 miles long 

 and 25 miles wide. In all, the scheme embraces 1,400,00'0 

 acres of land, of which, one and a quarter million acres 

 is irrigable. The state has spent on this scheme, $11,000,- 

 000, and expects to expend as much more before the work 

 is finally completed. The work now completed includes 

 the two main canals, a reservoir to hold 220,OCTO acre feet 

 of water, and distributing canals to supply about 400,000 

 acres of land. 



The most interesting feature to Americans of the Vic- 

 torian irrigation scheme is the manner in which the gov- 

 ernment is settling this land, because the settlement of 

 western irrigation districts has been, and is, the most dif- 

 ficult problem of the arid states of this country. The 

 weakness of irrigation development has been that atten- 

 tion has been too largely concentrated on engineering and 

 financial schemes for making water available and not 

 enough on bringing the water into immediate and profit- 

 able use. This is now being corrected and the experfence 

 of Victoria ought to be of great value in working out 

 here of comprehensive and successful schemes. 



Victorian Land Settlement Methods. 

 When the state of Victoria entered on the settlement 

 of its irrigated districts it owned no land, the public land 

 having passed into private ownership about forty "years 

 ago. This land, like the land of the Sacramento valley, 

 will grow crops without irrigation and had been used 

 chiefly for wheat growing and pasture. It was held in 

 large estates, the conditions being very similar to those 

 existing in California twenty years ago. The state decided 

 to make closer settlement and thorough cultivation, the 

 corner-stone of its irrigation policy, and to do this under 

 such conditions that men who had industry, ambition and 

 thrift could secure a home in the irrigated areas if they 

 had only a limited amount of money. It was also decided 

 to plan the distributory channels and the land sub-divi- 

 sions so as to give the greatest economy and efficiency in 

 ' delivering and using water, the idea being to create a sys- 

 tem that would require no changes in the future. In 

 order to do this the state decided to re-purchase a large 

 area of suitable land on which to create model communi- 

 ties which would serve as examples for private sub-divi- 

 sions by land owners should these be undertaken. Up to 

 the present the state has purchased and subdivided about 

 100,000 acres under the Goulburn Scheme. It has also 

 carried out the same policy in other districts. The blocks 

 offered settlers vary in size from two acres to two-hundred 

 1 acres. The two-acre blocks are intended as homes for 

 farm laborers. This area of irrigated land will enable a 

 laborer to keep a cow, some pigs and poultry and to have 

 ' his own fruit and vegetables, thus growing nearly every- 

 ' thing he eats. These laborers' blocks are intended for 

 : married men. They give the right conditions of life for 

 ' families, and give an interest in the district which makes 

 a better workman and a better citizen. 



The size of the farms depends on what the farmer in- 

 tends to do. Twenty acres of land is ample for fruit. The 

 \ alfalfa farms run up to two hundred acres. Under the 

 ; Victorian .law the state is required to deliver water on 

 each farm, to sell it by measure, and charge only enough 

 for the water delivered to make the work self-supporting. 

 The state in this stands all the losses in distribution. It 

 allots to each farmer, a definite volume of water, usually 

 one acre foot of water to each acre, and the farmer pays 

 for this allotment. If he needs more water he buys it at 



the same rate. The charges for water depend on the cost 

 of supplying it and vary in different districts from $1.25 

 to $5.00 an acre foot. The sub-divisions of land are made 

 to fit the canals like the blocks along the city streets. 



Aid to Settlers. Ready Made Farms. 

 Having planned for providing the water and sub- 

 dividing the land the state made provision for giving 

 needed financial assistance. It based this aid on the con- 

 ditions which it saw would confront settlers who have 

 limited capital, although some of the features are equally 

 attractive to settlers who have plenty of money. The 

 state realized that the settler with small capital would 

 need his money to buy live stock, farming implements, 

 and to make needed improvements. It would help him 

 if he only had to make a small payment on his land. The 

 state, therefore, only requires a cash payment of three 

 per cent and gives thirty-one and a half years to pay the 

 balance, with interest at four and a half per cent. To save 

 settlers and their families the hardship of loss of time and 

 consequent waste of capital in living expenses, the state 

 builds houses for them. If the houses are built after the 

 settlers arrive, tents or portable houses are provided for a 

 small charge while houses are being built. The settler has 

 fifteen years' time to repay the state for his house, with 

 interest at five per cent. 



In order that settlers may have food for their live stock 

 at once, or soon after their arrival, the state will, when re- 

 quested, grade and seed a portion of each farm to alfalfa. 

 The settler is given five years' time in which to pay for 

 this. 



Loans to Settlers. 



Realizing that the first two or three years on an irri- 

 gated farm are years of a large and continuous outlay in 

 which fences have to be built, sheds and stables erected, 

 ditches dug and the land graded for irrigation, the state 

 helps the settler to make this improvement by giving long 

 time loans at five per cent interest. These improvements 

 add more to the value of the land than they cost. The 

 state loans up to sixty per cent of this cost and hence as- 

 sumes no risks of loss while it gives the settler exactly the 

 kind of help he needs at the time when it is most valu- 

 able. 



To many Americans this doubtless seems like a risky 

 form of socialism, but the results in Victoria have fully 

 justified the methods employed. It has cut the interest 

 rates to farmers to less than half the rates paid by Ameri- 

 can settlers in the western states. Instead of the four and 

 five per cent interest rates of Victoria, American farmers 

 in the Rocky Mountain states pay from eight to twelve 

 per cent. Sub-dividing the land by the state and carry- 

 ing out schemes for settlement by the state is much 

 cheaper than having this done by private enterprise and 

 the settlers in Victoria get the benefit of this saving. The 

 result is, irrigated land is much cheaper in Victoria than 

 in California. The returns from it are about the same. 

 The Results of the Victorian Land Settlement Policy. 



The Victorian land settlement scheme was a departure 

 from existing methods. It has been in operation now for 

 about three years and is no longer an experiment. The 

 state is entirely satisfied with the results and is making 

 larger provisions for settlers now than ever before. Its 

 generous provisions have overcome the barrier which the 

 distance of Australia from America and Europe imposes. 

 The land which the state is making ready for the settlers 

 is being taken up rapidly, and the number of settlers 

 coming from United States and Europe is constantly 

 growing. So great has been the increase in travel be- 

 tween western America and Australia that there are now 

 seven steamships running between Australia and ports on 

 the Pacific coast where there were only three two years 

 ago. The time required for the ocean journey has been 

 reduced from twenty-eight to nineteen days. The state of 

 Victoria gives reduced rates to settlers and has established 

 a land settlement office at 687 Market street, San Fran- 

 cisco, where Mr. F. T. A. Fricke, Victorian land settlement 

 agent, has full information. This information may also 

 be obtained from the British Consulate General, 79 East 

 Adams street, Chicago. 



In view of the large amount of capital now tied up 



(Continued on page 412.) 



