90 
On Irrigation in Tasmania . 
in former years, has been completely freed from them of 
late by irrigation : the moment they begin to appear, the 
ground is saturated, and the whole are drowned. 
Thus it appears that irrigation is an effectual remedy 
for four of the principal evils with which the farmer has 
to contend in Tasmania. 
Though sufficient has been done by several enterprising 
landowners in different parts of the Island to prove 
beyond all doubt that the increase of produce by means 
of irrigation is very great, yet it is not easy to estimate 
what it would probably be on an average. It is certain 
that its effect upon pasture lands is far greater than on 
grain, for this obvious reason—that to the former it is 
applied all the summer, while for the latter it is only 
required till the end of jhe year : but grass land requires 
for the season about 2 h times as much as grain—that is, 
a reservoir that would hold sufficient water for J000 acres 
of grass, would supply 2500 of grain. The crops of 
grass that are now obtained from irrigated land are, 
indeed, astonishing : in one case I heard of 5 tons per 
acre in one cutting, and in another about 6 tons in two 
cuttings; besides the most luxuriant pasture during the 
remainder of the year, sufficient to fatten 5 sheep an acre 
per month. Probably the increase of produce per acre 
from irrigation would not be less than 10/. per annum 
in grass lands, besides rendering the pasture permanent; 
that is, rendering it unnecessary to break them up after 
three years, as at present. In wheat lands, after dis¬ 
cussing the subject with an experienced farmer, I con¬ 
cluded that the increased effect could not, on an average, 
be less than 3/. per acre in net profit: but there is great 
reason to suppose that both these estimates are much under 
the mark. But at these rates, supposing that 50,000 acres 
of the lands now cultivated could be irrigated, it would 
make a difference in the value of produce to the extent of 
