Modifying Climate. 125- 



It is difficult to get any series of rain records in which we can 

 place absolute confidence. The records for Shepparton prior to- 

 1897 are based upon those from Crumlin Vineyard, which should 

 have been sufficient, as that station is only 1J miles away from 

 Shepparton, but concurrent records 1897-1904 gave a difference 

 between them of nearly 15 per cent, of the Crumlin Vineyard 

 record. That may have been real only for these latter years, 

 as a 14 years' series from Mooroopna supports Crumlin Vineyard 

 from 1891-94. However, the two are shown, the upper line giving, 

 full weight to the Crumlin Vineyard 1885-96 record, and the 

 second treating it as needing a plus correction of 15 per cent. 

 The truth probably lies between the two. Patched records may 

 .;iSO account for the discrepancy between Rushworth and Sey- 

 mour. The figures, however, give strong support to the assump- 

 tion that stations south-east from the main irrigation area bene- 

 fited by an increase of at least 5 per cent, of the annual rainfall,, 

 or of fully one inch. The last two groups tend to show that 

 this apparent increase was not due to a difference in the rain 

 distribution with regard to area and storm type in the successive 

 decades. 



t 

 Irrigation Increases the Means of Irrigation. 



On the principle of " to him that hath shall be given, and he 

 shall have abundance," it is more than probable that irrigation 

 on any proper scale in Northern Victoria will increase the river 

 supply available for conservation and irrigation. 



Our mountain ranges are not high, but they are admirably 

 placed to take advantage of improved evaporation results from 

 the great inland area through which their waters flow. They 

 form almost a semicircle, running south through New South- 

 Wales, and then west through Victoria. As the moistened air- 

 must almost invariably move off eastwards, it must pass over 

 this range, which reaches its greatest average elevation in the 

 bend where it lies most directly in the path of the eastward 

 moving air. This additional evaporation will not only increase 

 over the mountain slopes every rainfall coming by way of the 

 interior, but as mists are almost a constant feature of the moun- 

 tain weather, the wetting effect of these will be greatly increased,, 

 often out of all proportion to the increased humidity. It may, irt 

 fact, be in this way that the improved conditions would be most: 

 manifest. Taking, for example, the average condition of tem- 

 perature and humidity at Echuca, and assuming the eastward 



