SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
scrub the Government is taking no risks, and should it exist it is 
unlikely to cause very serious damage. All the irrigation channels are 
being concreted in order to prevent seepage, and an excellent drainage 
scheme is being provided. 
Irrigation farming in Australia is bound to encounter much more 
opposition before it finally breaks down the ignorance and prejudice 
which now oppose it. Some initial failures at Yanco have certainly 
retarded development in New South Wales, as similar failures in the 
Goulburn Valley kept it back in Victoria. But there have been 
innumerable failures in dry farming in all parts of Australia, and it is 
as reasonable to argue the unsuitability of the Commonwealth to grow 
wool or wheat, if this is to be the basis of judgment, as it is to pronounce 
a verdict upon irrigation because every man who goes upon an irrigation 
block does not prosper. Success depends mainly upon the man. The 
science of irrigation requires to be learned, and intelligence, sustained 
labour, and experience are necessary before good results can be obtained. 
It can safely be said that the Yanco scheme provides all the natural 
elements of success. The human factor will make or mar it. 
There are many reasons why agricultural research should 
form a prominent feature of the activities of the Commonwealth 
of Australia. Its ultimate aim is to increase the productivity 
of the country, and it would be impossible to exaggerate the 
importance of that at the present juncture; for, when the war 
clouds have passed away, when men have beaten their tanks 
into tractors and their bayonets into binder-blades (to modern-= 
ize a scriptural quotation), and peace once more comes to this 
troubled world, there will be a huge bill to pay, and that bill 
can only be paid as the result of increased—and greatly 
increased—production. 
—Professor R. D. WATT. 
410 
