PROGRESS AND POSITION OF IRRIGATION IN N.S.W. 397 
crops than in all others combined. Not only so, but in some at 
least of the States, in addition to these crops, extensive areas of 
grass land are watered merely for pasture. In this country, though 
we are beyond the stage at which intelligent persons will be found 
to make the bald statement that irrigation will not pay, there are 
still many who will state that irrigation of grass land or of cereals 
will not pay. Such a statement is really absurd and meaningless, 
unless the rainfall is so abundant that further watering would 
not be beneficial. If by supplementing the rainfall an increased 
growth of grass or an increased crop of cereals resulted, clearly 
there would be appreciable benefit from this watering. If the 
value of this benefit exceeded the cost of the watering it would be 
clear that it did pay to have the watering. For instance, if by 
irrigating wheat the average yield were increased by five bushels 
per acre, while the cost per acre of applying the water was 
equivalent to the value of two bushels, there would be no question 
as to the watering being remunerative. It is extraordinary that 
so much misapprehension exists in regard to a point which seems 
so obvious. As a matter of fact there are places in this Colony 
in which irrigation of grass land is practised with great advantage, 
and there are others which present nearly equal facilities for it. 
In short where water is available or can be made available, what 
the landholder has to ascertain before he can come to a conclusion 
on the subject of irrigation is in the first place the most suitable 
crop to produce, in the second place the cost per acre of irrigating 
that crop, and in the third place the value of the increase of crop 
owing to watering. If this method of taking up the subject were 
generally adopted, there would be no doubt as to the results. I 
have not met with or heard of a single person in this Colony who 
has tried irrigation in a rational and business-like manner, who 
has not been thoroughly satisfied with the experiment. 
When the railway system of India was much less extensive 
than it is now, the importance, in times of famine, of what were 
termed ‘protected areas,” was recognised, and as far as possible 
the principle of providing for such areas was acted on. A district 
