On Irrigation in Tasmania. 
169 
etor may at once commence arrangements for watering 
his estate, where otherwise he would have to enter into 
agreements with his neighbours to allow of a channel 
being cut through their lands, or, where it would 
be necessary, to form a combined and extensive plan 
for irrigating a large extent of country at once; as, for 
instance, in the lower part of the Lake River, where the 
fall is so small that to lead the water out of it by channels 
they must be brought from so considerable a distance 
above the estate to be watered as to pass perhaps through 
two or three others before they reach it. The same is the 
case with rivers which run in deep channels ; as, for 
instance, the lower parts of the South Esk and Derwent, 
where the lands to be watered may be from 30 to 50 feet 
above the level of the river. It is very probable that it 
may appear at first sight that it would be too expensive 
to attempt to irrigate by machinery ; but it should be made 
the subject of calculation, or we may be deterred from 
obtaining an advantage by the fear of an objection which 
has no real existence. In India, Egypt, and many hot 
countries it is found to answer to irrigate by machinery, 
and the system is carried to a vast extent; and it is well 
known that in England many hundred thousand acres of 
excellent land are made available by pumping out water, 
not indeed to irrigate, but to drain them—which however 
amounts to the same thing. 
On calculating with a very intelligent and experienced 
land-owner the costand returns of irrigating land in New 
South Wales by steam, where the water would be raised 
more than 70 feet, there seemed no room to doubt that the 
profits would be most abundant. There are three modes 
by which this might be effected; viz.—by steam, by animal 
labour, or by windmills. The first would have the advan¬ 
tage over the second in first cost and in annual outlay, 
where the quantity to be raised was not very small. The 
