PROGRESS AND POSITION OF IRRIGATION IN N.S.W. 391 
that property, and a stock of it had to be maintained, Mr. Wren 
went into the question whether he could produce lucerne hay in 
a central position in the estate. He came to the conclusion that 
he could do so with advantage, notwithstanding the serious 
difficulties to be overcome. Owing in a great measure to the high 
cost of carriage, lucerne hay could seldom be obtained for less 
than £6 per ton, and had cost as much as £8 per ton. The 
problem to be solved was how to produce lucerne hay at a lower 
cost than this on land which consisted of low but steep hills with- 
out any intervening valleys. A good supply of water was avail- 
able, but the soil on these hills was only from five to nine inches 
deep, underlaid by disintegrated granite, the depth of which was 
seldom less than two to three feet, and asa rule was considerably — 
more. Under these unpromising circumstances not only were 
good crops of lucerne of a high quality obtained, but on account 
of the admirable manner in which the water was distributed, the 
crop was more even than almost any crop of lucerne I have ever 
seen on the plains. The secret of this uniform distribution of the 
water lay in the fact that the channels were skilfully marked out 
with the aid of a simple but effective water level, which was made 
by Mr. Wren’s engineer, and were constructed in a proper manner. 
As a rule, in the construction of distribution channels in these 
colonies and America, economy in first cost is attained with con- 
siderable sacrifice of efficiency and economy in the subsequent 
working. At Kameruka, the channels were neatly cut with the 
Hornsby draining plough, and very little hand dressing was 
required. The water had to be raised two hundred and forty-six 
feet, and the pumping plant was guaranteed to deliver 30,000 
gallons per hour at that height. The circumstances here were 
most exceptional, and though the experiment was successful and 
satisfactory, it is unlikely that irrigation will be attempted in 
many other cases where like difficulties exist. 
Another irrigated property in which I found features of a some- 
what unusual character was the farm in the pastoral estate of 
Mr. Wills Allen at Gunnible, near Gunnedah. Here also the 
