4 
THE VALUE OF IRRIGATION. 
Arrived at Leeton, however, one has not yet reached his destination. 
This township is merely the starting point, if the whole of the sur- 
rounding settlement is to be seen, of a number of daily journeys. 
When these are concluded another journey of between 30 and 40 miles, 
north-west from Leeton, must be made to Griffith, or one of the other 
centres of settlement on the Mirrool area, and more time must be 
spent upon daily peregrinations through this reservation before any- 
thing like a general knowledge of the scheme and its possibilities is 
obtained. What is variously known as the Murrumbidgee scheme, the 
Burrinjuck scheme, or the Yanco scheme consists, therefore, of two 
separate and remote areas—Yanco and Mirrool—comprising between 
them 200,000 acres of land for which water is either now available or 
is being made available. The Mirrool area also enjoys railway com- 
munication, being fed by a spur line which branches off the Coota- 
mundra-Wyalong service at Temora. It is proposed at an early date 
A SETTLER’S HOME. 
to link up these two main subdivisions by means of a railway, either 
electric or steam, and so provide for the transference of produce to the 
various factories specially equipped for its treatment, as well as to 
afford social interchange between the settlers. A great deal of the 
intervening country is controlled by the Commission, and within it 
lies a huge dry lake which is being utilized as a run-off for the drainage 
waters after irrigation. Some of the unirrigated country is also being 
rented to the irrigation settlers, whilst other portions are rented to 
eraziers. The country is typical of a great deal of the Riverina, pos- 
sessing very little big timber, and some of it is covered by malice scrub. 
The soil varies somewhat in its physical and chemical aspects, but is 
of uniformly high fertility. * Its one main deficiency is phosphorus, 
and in this respect it resembles practically the whole of what are 
commonly termed the wheat lands of Australia—the. red basaltic 
4 345 
