170 
On Irrigation in Tasmania . 
second would require least skill in its management. The 
third would be the cheapest of all, probably, as respects 
the cost of management; but it would have the great 
disadvantage of being uncertain, and liable to fail when 
most wanted, unless a considerable reservoir was attached 
to it: the wind is certainly most constant in the summer, 
when it would be required, but in many situations no suffi¬ 
ciently exposed spot could be found on an estate to ensure 
a sufficient power in this way. With respect to the parti¬ 
cular apparatus that might be used in raising the water, 
probably the best for high lifts would be the common 
forcing-pump ; but when the height does not exceed 30 
feet, a chain of buckets would be applicable : it would 
also have the advantage of being the simplest and least 
expensive in its first cost. As I have had little practical 
experience in raising water, as such information is to be 
obtained in any Encyclopaedia, and as the machine- 
makers are generally able to plan apparatus for raising 
water, I shall not attempt to go into further particulars 
on this point.— (Seepostscript.) 
Having obtained water by one of these three methods, 
—viz. by a tank, by leading a channel from a river, or 
by machinery,—it remains to apply it to the land. In the 
Indian irrigation the land is perfectly levelled, divided by 
little banks, and then flooded to the depth of some inches; 
and the system is therefore entirely inapplicable to 
Tasmania, where it will only be necessary to soak 
the land,—and any person by a little consideration may 
see how this can be effected : the principle is simply to 
draw f plough furrows along the principal natural ridges 
of the field, and to let the water out of them into cross 
furrow r s by means of a spade ; the water in flowing along 
the furrows will soak the land for some yards on each 
side, and in this way the whole may be readily saturated. 
