396 H. G. McKINNEY. 
feature in the present position is the large number of pumping 
engines on the rivers and the increased knowledge of the capabili- 
ties of irrigation. There is no doubt that as soon as the pinch of 
drought begins to be felt, the irrigation plants in the Central and 
Westrn Divisions will be worked to their full capacity, and a 
great stimulus will be given to irrigation enterprise. It is to be 
regretted that the favourable seasons have had the effect of making 
very many of our landholders forget what a drought is like, and 
of luling them into a feeling of security which the statistics of 
the rainfall do not warrant. In each of the three classes of country 
landholders—pastoralists, farmers, and fruit growers—there are 
men to be found who stand in the front rank in the knowledge 
and practice of their business, but they constitute only a small 
minority. Landholders asa rule are the most conservative portion 
of a community, and the slowest to adopt altered methods or new 
expedients. Still it is not likely to happen again that on rich 
alluvial land fronting on a permanent river, mattresses will be 
ripped up for the fodder which they contain, or flour used in the 
absence of other available food to keep horses alive, as has actually 
happened in times past ; but it may be confidently expected that 
when a drought does come, many of the landholders will be badly 
provided with reserves of fodder to meet it. While many have 
neglected excellent opportunities of collecting large supplies of 
bush hay—that is, hay made from the natural grasses—it is not 
surprising that those who have pumping engines have frequently 
contented themselves with producing lucerne and other fodder 
crops in quantities very little above current requirements. 
Respecting this question of irrigation for pastoral purposes, it 
is worth while to examine how it is dealt with in the Western 
States of America. In the references to American irrigation which 
have appeared in the press in this Colony, the fruit growing 
industry is so frequently referred to as to create an impression 
that irrigation there is confined chiefly to orchards. As a matter 
of fact, with the exception of California and New Mexico, all the 
States in which irrigation is practised have a larger area in fodder 
al 
