ARTESIAN WATER IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 289 



of reducing the flow of artesian water to such an extent that bores, 

 which were flowing a few years ago, have now to be pumped. 



At Kissengen in Bavaria, there is a remarkable salt well one 

 thousand eight hundred and seventy-one feet deep, from which 

 the water rises fifty-eight feet above the curb. The pressure of 

 the water is attributed to carbon dioxide generated by the chemical 

 reactions of sulphate of lime and limestone, a considerable thick- 

 ness of both of which was passed through in boring the well. 



In the United States of America the principal artesian basins 

 are located as follows : — 



(1) Between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Ocean. 



(2) Between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. 



(3) On the East side of the Rocky Mountains. 



In an area eighteen miles by fourteen miles in Kern County, 

 California, fifty-four of the principal wells yield as much as 

 61,970.000 gallons of water daily. 



In the San Luis Valley near the head of the Rio Grande, in an 

 area measuring seventy miles by eighty miles there are as many 

 as 2,000 artesian wells. 



The result of the sinking of this vast number of successful wells 

 has been that what was formerly an arid desert receiving only 

 from two inches to six inches of rain annually is now being brought 

 steadily under irrigation and cultivation. The value of land has 

 in some instances been increased from fifty to two hundred and 

 fifty per cent., and it is stated that wheat grown with artesian 

 water in the Antelope Valley, Mogave Desert, took the first prize 

 at one of the recent Agricultural Competitions in West California* 

 It is however considered questionable whether artesian water,, 

 which is costly to secure, can be used profitably for grain raising. 

 There can be no doubt however that it can be applied successfully 

 to the raising of fruit and vegetables. 



In America much importance is attached to the aeration of 

 artesian water before it is allowed to enter the irrigation ditches, 

 with the object presumably of converting soluble sulphates in the 

 S— December 2, 1891. 



