8 



THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



Spriugfield.— On the farm of Mr. Jan 

 Ventor van der Merwe, blue-and-white 

 ox, short horns, no brands, white tail. 

 Red-and-white ox, upright horns, no 

 brand, dewlap been cut. Two-year filly, 

 branded EG, long tail, dark chestnut. 



Mossdale.— Black bastard Zulu bull, 

 speckled white belly and legs, small 

 patches of white on rump, white patch 



on forehead, one nick in both ears, no 

 brands, aged. Value about £5. 



Nqutu.— Three sheep (ewes), swallow 

 fork right (;a.% bit ofE top left ear. 



Mabehlana. — Bay mare, with one white 

 hind foot, about 14 hands 3 inches. 



On the farm "Loch Buighe," of Mr. 

 W. L. Macfarlane, bay yearling filly, with 

 small white star. 



irrigation in Austraiia, 



LORD BRASSEY, in a lecture recently 

 delivered at the Colonial Institute, 

 made the following remarks with refer- 

 ence to irrigation in Victoria : — The Gov- 

 ernment of Victoria has not neglected the 

 important subject of irrigation. The re- 

 sults, however, have not been encouraging. 

 In view of the general inability of the 

 water-trusts to meet their engagements, 

 shortly before I arrived in Victoria it was 

 decided to appoint a Royal Commission 

 on water supply. Their report deals ex- 

 haustively with the subject. The policy 

 of loans to local bodies for carrying out 

 schemes of irrigation had its origin in the 

 drought of unwonted severity with which 

 Victoria was visited in 1865, which was 

 followed in subsequent years by partial 

 droughts, more or less severe. By these 

 periodical visitations settlers in the affected 

 districts were reduced to dire straits. In 

 1880 the necessity for guarding against 

 the recurrence of such calamities caused 

 the Government to engage the services of 

 Messrs. Gordon and Black, two engineer- 

 ing experts, with instructions to report as 

 to the best means of conserving water in 

 the dry northern districts. In discussing 

 how far it would be feasible and profitable 

 to introduce irrigation as a great national 

 work, Messrs. Gordon and Black pointed 

 out that in all countries where irrigation 

 proper has been long and extensively 

 practised, we find some special physicial 

 and climatic condition present, which 

 governs the supply of water, and places 

 it within reach of the cultivator, in 

 greatest abundance at the time when it is 

 most required, free of cost, except the 

 labour and expense of directly utilising 

 it. This seems to be a condition precedent 

 to the establishment of all extensive 

 systems of irrigation, and it may well be 



doubted whether irrigation on any ex- 

 tended scale is feasible where this is not 

 the natural condition of the water-supply. 



In the plains of Lombardy, Piedmont, 

 and Northern Italy, in the Vega of 

 Grenada, and the Huerta of Valencia, all 

 the conditions favour irrigation, and the 

 results are admirable. Though rain is 

 very scarce, Valencia draws a supply of 

 water from reservoirs inexhaustible in 

 their abundance— from the snows of the 

 central tablelands of Spain. Of these 

 sources the Moors— skilled above all men 

 in irrigation — )mew well how to take 

 advantage. Their work and its results 

 have been described in glowing eloquence 

 by Ford, the gifted author of Murray's 

 Handbook for Spain. Irrigated by the 

 artificial canals formed by the Moors, the 

 rich alluvial plains know no agricultural 

 repose. Man is never weary of sowing, 

 nor the sun of calling into life. T he pro- 

 duce is almost incredible, under this 

 combined influence of heat and moisture. 

 In one year four or five crops are raised 

 in succession. 



As in Spain, so in Italy, the rivers 

 intersecting the plains take their rise in 

 the Alps, and the melting snows yield 

 water in abundance at the season when it 

 is needed. In Victoria the natural con- 

 -litious are not the same. The greater 

 part of the water which the winter rains 

 supply passes away into the sea as it falls. 



Agricultural ShowSm 



Umvoti County (Greytown), Thursday, May 

 •SOth. 



Polela (Bulwer), June 5th. 



Lion's River Division (Howick), Thursday, 



June 27th. 

 Ixopo, Wednesday, July 3rd. 



