SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
to the end of April. From investigations systematically carried out 
since 1910 it has been estimated even if all the suspended silt in the 
stored waters was deposited, that it would take, approximately, 2,000 
years for the dam to silt up. It is a reasonable conclusion, therefore, 
that the period at which the silt problem will become acute is very 
remote. ' 
The visitor to the irrigation area sces nothing of the giant task 
that has been performed for the reclamation of the arid plains. His 
first intimation of his near approach to Yanco is a glimpse of the 
broad flowing yellow stream imprisoned between the red banks of the 
canal. One or two small patches of rich green vegetation, in striking 
contrast to the parched and desolate waste unserved by water, mark 
the frontier of irrigation activities. Then the train crawls alongside 
the Yanco platform, from which are visible a few small orchards, and 
a very limited acreage of lucerne fields. The introduction to the 
PORTION OF THE DAM. 
settlement is disappointing. First unfavorable impressions, how- 
ever, are quickly dispelled. Four or five miles in a motor brings one 
to Leeton, the centre of operations of the eastern portion of the settle- 
ment, and the drive provides abundant evidence of the suitability of 
the soil for diversified and intensive agriculture. The fact is that 
that stretch of the railway line from Junee to Hay, which the Yanco 
Siding serves, merely skirts the edge of a very small portion of the 
territory embraced by the irrigation scheme, and does not traverse 
much of the country where settlement has taken place. It was around 
Leeton that the first blocks were made available six or seven years “20, 
and consequently this locality furnishes, at this stage of development, 
the best proof of the fertility of the land. A vastly different concep- 
tion of the potentialities of the scheme would exist in the public mind 
if the railways cut through the centre of production and the results of 
irrigation farming were clearly revealed. 
344 
