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SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
The Value of Irrigation. 
The Murrumbidgee Scheme. 
By E. N. ROBINSON. 
No. II. 
The Murrumbidgee scheme, as previously indicated, is too large for 
one to attempt anything more than a broad, general outline of its 
principal features. With an irrigable area of 200,000 acres, there must 
necessarily be differences in the chemical composition and in the mechani- 
cal condition of the soil. On the whole, however, the quality is uniformly 
good. Here and there patches may occur whose physical properties 
may impose narrower restrictions upon the utilization of the land, 
especially in the case of the unskilled irrigationist. Even so, as far 
as one can read the future, this limitation of choice of enterprises 
should not act as a break upon the progress and ambitions of the 
settlers. 
BUILDING A CHANNEL. 
mechanical condition of some of the land prevents the cultivation of 
lucerne, and cuts the choice of the land-holder down to the cultivation 
of stone fruits, or of cereals, there is no need at this stage to waste 
sympathy upon the man who undertakes either of these activities. 
Fruit-growing has for so long occupied such a minor and obscure 
. place amongst our primary industries that it is still commonly 
accepted as being of little importance, and deserving of even less 
encouragement. That view must change. The fault in the past has 
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Accepting, to avoid disputation, a widely-held view that the | 
