u 



HOCKINGS' GARDEN" MANUAL. 



one foot from the surface of any common or field, which 

 has not been cropped, is to be preferred, and the fuller 

 it is of fibrous matter the better it will prove for the 

 growth of the plants. 



IRRIGATION. 



Irrigation" as a means of increasing the produce of 

 the soil is of great antiquity. It is practised to a 

 considerable extent in China. India, Italy, and other 

 countries, and in England the water meadows are a 

 source of great profit. In Queensland there is 

 abundance of grass for the cattle without resorting to 

 this means of providing it: but there is scarcely any 

 country where the inducement to irrigate is greater. 

 With the continual risk of drought, and wages at the 

 maximum rate, it behoves the farmer to adopt every 

 means within his reach to protect himself against the 

 former, as well as to economise the latter. One 

 great obstacle to the general introduction of irrigation 

 is. that our rivers are mostly salt ; and we are not 

 possessed of any satisfactory information as. to how far 

 such water can be advantageously used for growing 

 crops. It is not considered safe to nse water contain- 

 ing more than three per cent, of salt ; and as from some 

 experiments made by the late Mr. Eldridge on the 

 River Brisbane water, after dry weather, it was found 

 to contain five per cent, of salt, it appears that at the 

 time when the water would be most urgently required 

 for irrigation it would be unsafe for the farmers on the 

 Brisbane to use the water from that river, unless mixed 

 with an equal quantity of fresh : and then it should 

 never be allowed to touch the foliage of the plants. 



There are, no doubt, many positions where a 

 suitable supply of water which, taking its rise at a 



