ARTESIAN WATER IN N. S. WALES. 97 



private, upon an artesian area of 62,000 square miles, it will be 

 readily realized what a large field for development there is. The 

 climatic conditions existing in this Oolony and America are some- 

 what similar, the advantage if any, being with us. The whole 

 of the country lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra 

 Nevada, and to some extent to the west of the Rocky Mountains 

 embracing Southern California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, 

 may be described as the arid lands of the United States. The 

 temperature varies exceeding, that is to say from frost to 120° Fah. 

 The climate is extremely dry. The rainfall in the dry belt of 

 Southern California which embraces Riverside, Los Angeles, and 

 the Kern Valley, varies from six to ten inches per annum. The 

 area of this latter valley is eighteen by fourteen miles, and upon 

 this area are sixty flowing wells, (utilized almost entirely for the 

 irrigation of lucerne for stock feeding), which yield the handsome 

 supply of 61,000,000 gallons per diem. In Arizona, Texas and 

 New Mexico, the heat is more intense. Take for instance the 

 Mojave Desert, the rainfall of which does not exceed six inches 

 per annum, where wheat has been harvested, irrigated with 

 artesian water, which took a prize against the competition of all 

 Southern California, — the soil is described as a shifting sand 

 growing in its natural state nothing but cactus, mesquite, and 

 sage brush. The general character of the soil, except upon the 

 Mesas or tablelands, is exceedingly poor, so poor that we have 

 nothing so desert or arid in our Colony, and nowhere except 

 perhaps in the Northern Territory of South Australia can a 

 parallel be found to it. 



If such a revolution in the condition of any land can be effected 

 in the course of a few years, as has been done in America, one 

 naturally pauses to think if there is any reason why the same 

 results cannot be obtained in our western lands, where we have a 

 soil of unbounded fertility, free from the alkali so prevalent in 

 American soils, only requiring the beneficent aid of the water now 

 lying hidden beneath the surface. The illustration of the problems, 

 namely the possibility of close settlement, and the profitable 



G— June 1,11 



