THE VALUE OF IRRIGATION. 
The Value of Irrigation. 
The Murrumbidgee Scheme. 
By E. N. ROBINSON. 
No. 1. 
Australia has not yet risen to a full appreciation of the value of 
irrigation. Three or four of the smaller settlements along the Murray 
have recently attracted more than passing attention, and the results 
which have followed their development would, without doubt, have 
hastened settlement had the water been available to justify a further 
large extension of the acreage in these localities. Until extra provision 
is made for storage at the head of this important waterway, there can 
be no appreciable increase of the irrigable area along the Murray. As 
the scheme which has been decided upon by New South Wales, Victoria, 
and South Australia, and which is being financially backed by the 
Commonwealth, proceeds, more and more land will be available, and 
it will be eagerly snapped up. 
The keen demand for Murray River blocks, however, does not prove 
a general recognition of the economic importance and advantages of 
irrigation farming. It simply arises from the fact that the settlers at 
Mildura, at Renmark, and other places have prospered exceedingly 
during the last decade, and that the story of their success, often widely 
exaggerated, has encouraged the belief that to plant 10 acres of vines 
and a few orange trees is the surest way to get rich quickly. Apart 
from these outstanding illustrations to the contrary, irrigation enter- 
prises have not given birth to that rich and stable settlement which 
was so confidently anticipated. Many factors have contributed to their 
retardment. Engineering mistakes, due to a lack of knowledge of soil 
condition, have been probably the most prolific source of failure. The 
selection of relatively unsuitable areas, and the endeavour to adapt 
them to inappropriate purposes, occasioned other serious setbacks. 
The delusion, that still to a large extent prevails, that the application 
of an almost unlimited quantity of water to a small area of land is the 
surest way to achieve good results, has frequently brought about the 
ruin of many a hard-working settler.- In short, failure has sprung 
from indifferent scientific knowledge on the part of those who designed - 
some of our earlier schemes, accelerated and completed by an insuffi- 
cient scientific knowledge on the part of those who settled thereon. 
These mistakes, however, belong to the past. The serious defects have, 
to a large extent, been remedied, and a fresh start has been made. 
Australia has had to buy her experience, and in this respect she is by 
no means singular. The United States has made many more scrious 
and more costly mistakes than we have done, and it were well to keep 
this fact in mind, rather than to brood over melancholy recollections. 
We can profit from our sad experience, as the United States has done 
from hers, and patiently look forward to the realization of those dreams 
of prosperous settlement which our initial grandiose undertakings 
inspired. 
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