» THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
February 2, 1907 
Undertakers. 
ADDY, J.C., & SON, Funelal Direc- 
tors and Carriage Proprietors. 
All Funerals conducted under personal 
supervision. 13 Flinders St., Adelaide 
- Phones—Adelaide 1899, Port 110, and 
Semaphore 255. 
Drainage and Irrigation, 
By A. 8. Kenyon, C.E. 
The following are extracts of a paper 
contributed by Mr. A,S Kenyon, C.E., 
Engineer for Agriculture: —The American 
teachers tell us that irrigation and drain- 
age, or rather drai age and irrigation, are 
inseparable, drainage being the more im- 
portant. Our experience, now that we 
have had some years of experience, is 
leading to the same conclusion. At Mil- 
dura, where irrigation on alarge scale and 
to an extent replacing rather than sup- 
plementing the annual rain fall, was first 
put in operation, the early years did not 
teach the lesson, owing to the fact that, 
with other mistakes apparently unavoid- 
able in the foundation of new occupations 
and industries, the varieties and classes of 
trees planted were not generally suitable 
either for the natural conditions or to give 
profitable returns. Seepage, of course, 
both black and white, early made its ap- 
pearance; trees died out in the im- 
mediately affected parts, and general 
consternation ensued. Balm was, however 
imputed to the leakage from the channels 
only, aud not to the lack of drainage. 
Now that all the early inferior trees have 
been got rid of, and the limits of direct 
seepage from the channels ascertained, 
much more definite knowledge of the 
effects of overwatering is available, anda 
considerable amount of attention is being 
paid {to the drainage problem. Shafts 
have been sunk through the surface sands, 
* loams, and clays into beds of drift, and 
drains of various kinds led into them. 
These are onlv partially effective, and 
there is evinced a decided tendency to 
install complete systems of the tile or 
agricultural pipe drains, absolutely on the 
lines of oldworld methods. The value of 
full-bearing well selected orchards in 
Mildura now reaches to over £100 per 
acre, so that the comparatively heavy 
initial outlay is not so severely felt. ‘The 
spectacle, however, of a cv untry like the 
mallee frontage to the Murray River, at 
Mildura, requiring subsoil pipe drainage 
is sufficiently startling, and must inevi- 
tably give much food for thought to those 
engaged in either carrying on or advo- 
cating irrigationin our arid areas. Mildura 
has, like all the mallee areas, soilsranging 
from almost pure sand to sandy clay, with 
beds comparatively near the surface of 
pure drift sand. The subsoil 1s frequently 
almost ure rubbly limestone (so called) — 
being generally the sulphate and rarely 
the carbonate form of lime—while in all 
cases lime in its varions compounds is 
argely present. The “water table,” save 
Produce Packers, &c. 
OLDSWORTH, C., Sen., Wholesal 
Fruiterer, 13 & 14 Hast Terrace 
main Entrance to the Fruit and Produce 
Exchange Market. Garden Produce 
Packed to all parts of the States for Cash 
A trial solicited. 
in beds of lagoons or swamps—where 
water collects in the rainy seasons—is 
generally at a depth of 80 feet, or over. 
The rain fall is on the average about 12 
in. per annumonly. The contra is ne- 
cessarily the volumes of water used in 
irrigating. These are, though probably 
not excessive, large, the average addition 
to the perennial crops, such as fruit trees 
being about 24 in. net, i.e., without allow- 
ing for water seeping from the distribu- 
tary channels. Considering there are 
many light showers which do not get into 
the subsoil, the result ef such heavy 
watering is equivalent te being ina zone 
of rainfall of about 40 in. per annum. 
Hence the raising of the water table to 
within a few feet of the surface, injury to 
the growth of the trees, and the necessity 
for subsoil drainage. Fruit trees show 
more quickly than any other crop the 
injurious effects of a shallow “ water 
table.” Inthe Goulburn Valley it will 
not be long ere drainage will be compul- 
sory resorted to by the orchardists. The 
case with regard to flooding irrigation is 
more marked. Apart from the injurious 
effects of submerging toa greater or lesser 
extent the growing plant, and preventing 
the natural processes of atmospheric action 
—markedly injurious under the high 
temperatures characteriste of our summer 
season—the inadequate preparation of the 
land calls for tie higher lands. For 
orchard lands, and for like crops where 
the capital value of the producing land is 
high, there is nothing to excel the tile or 
agricultural system. Its cost is high—as 
much as £6 or £7 per acre—though its 
seperal adoption should lead to the estab- 
lishment of tilemaking works in the lo- 
cality, and consequent cheapening of the 
tiles. In our shallow soils, with subsoil 
of highly clever nature, great care must 
be taken in subsoiling not to bring bring 
much—none, if possible—of the subsoil to 
the surface. as the subsoil, though chemi- 
cal analysis shows it practically as-rich 
in plant foods as the surface soil, is known 
by bitter experience to be useless to plants 
for many years. The experience of all 
other irrigating countries warns us that it 
is esential to drain to achieve the best 
results.—“ The Register.” 
Incomz Tax.— We would call the atten- 
tion of our readers to the “Income Tax 
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Free. 
ARSENITE OF LEAD SPRAY FOR 
CODLIN MOTH. 
E. E. Pescott, Inspector, Vegetation 
Diseases Acts, Bendigo. 
Owing to the prevalence of codlin 
moth, it is now a recognised fact among 
orchardists that the only adequate method 
of coping with the pest is to spray the 
trees and fruit with some arsenical solu- 
tion, whereby the young grub may be 
poisoned before entering the fruit. Paris 
green was amongst the first sprays used 
for this purpose. This was afterwards 
superseded by arsenite of lime, Latterly, 
however, in the Bendigo district, as well 
as in other places, the arsenite of lead 
spray has become very popular, and has. 
been used with excellent results. The 
majority of growers using this spray now 
consider it superior in every way to 
arsenite of lime or to Paris green. The 
formula is as follows :—1 lb white arsenic, 
2 lbs carbonate of soda crystals, 7 lbs 
acetate of lead, and 360 gallons of water. 
To make the stock solution, the argenic 
and soda should be boiled together for 
twenty to thirty minutes, in half a gallon 
of water. The acetate of lead should be 
separately dissolved in one gallon of warm 
water. When cold, the arsenic-soda solu- 
tion should be gradually stirred into the 
lead acetate solution till both are thoro- 
ughly mixed. If mixed when warm the 
union of these two solutions results in 
extreme effervescence, and great care 
should be taken that the froth does not 
run oyer the vessel used, When cooled. 
the mixture becomes liquid again, and 
may be stored away for use, There will 
be twelve pints of the stock solution, and 
if this be placed in twelve pint bottles, 
one bottle can be used to every 30 gallons 
of water, The stock solution will keep 
indefinitely. 
This spraying solution is considered 
superior to arsenite of lime for many 
reasons. Provided the water be strained 
the mixture runs freely through the 
pump, and the whole of the contents of 
the cask may be sprayed without once 
choking or clogging the nozzel. This 
point alone should make the spray a 
popular one, In the arsenite of lime 
spray trouble is often experienced in ob- 
taining freshly-burnt lime, and the re- 
sultant mixture is not as perfect nor a8 
effective as it might be. The absence of 
good lime, too, might havea caustic effect | 
on the foliage. This spray adhears | etter 
to the foliage and fruit than other sprays) _ 
and consequently less material may bé 
used for each tree. Again, the trees aré 
not rendered unsightly, as with the lime 
