10 
ST. BL 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
MO « 
Dark Ch. Stallion. 
14 Hands High. Plenty of Substance. 
Splendid Action. 
Good in all Harness. 
Is by Young Tipperary ; grandsire, Tipperary. 
Dam, Leah, by Sir Lucius O’Trigger; g. dam, Lily, by 
Rushtroom (Imp.); g.g. dam, Conrad’s Mare. 
FIRST PRIZE, Adelaide Show, September, 1906. 
FIRST PRIZE, Gawler Show, September, 1906. 
FIRST PRIZE, Two Wells Show, September, 1906.. 
FIRST PRIZE, Mount Barker Show, March, 1907. 
Extract from THE ReeisteR:—Among an excellent lot of ponies 
Mr. A. Brown’s St. Elmo-stood out prominently by defeating two 
hardened prizetakers in the entire class between 13.2 and 14.1 hands 
— 
TERMS, £2 10s., payable on or before ist 
January. 
Groomage, 2s. 6d. 
A. BROWN, Proprietor. 
Tattersall’s Stables, Pirie Street, Adelaide, 
Se SSS 
Drainage and, Irrigation. 
[By A. S. Kenyon, C.E.] 
Cultivation without irrigation has been 
stated to be preferable to irrigation with- 
out cultivation, and there is no doubt 
that there is a great deal of truth in the 
statement, In our State, careful and 
progressive farmers have raised. larger 
and better quality crops than others have 
achieved with the same rainfall, and with 
the aid of irrigation water in addition. 
Much of the improved result was, no 
doubt, due to better cultivation methods ; 
but these improved methods also meaut, 
toa slight extent, drainage. The American 
teachers tell us that irrigation and draln- 
age, or rather drainage and irrigaticn, are 
inseparable, draiuage heing the more 
important. Our experionce, now that we 
have had some years of irrigation, is 
leading to the same conclusion. At 
Mildura, where irrigation on a large scale 
and to an extent replacing rather than 
supplementing the annual rainfall, was 
first put in operation, the early years did 
not tcach the lesson; owing to the fact 
that, with other mistakes apparently ua- 
avoidable in the foundation of new occu- 
pations 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 appearance; trees died out in the 
immediately affeeted parts, and general 
consternation ensued. Blame was, how- 
ever, imputed to the leakage from the 
channels only, and not to the lack of 
drainage. Naturally, of course, the first 
evidences of over-saturation of the soil 
occurred near the channels, while the 
dying off of trees in soils not giving 
surface indibations of seepage, was 
ascribed to all sorts of other causes- 
Now that all the early inferior trees have 
been g»t rid of, and the limits of direct 
seepage from the channels ascertained, 
much more kuowledge of the effects of 
over-watering is available, and a conslder- ~ 
able 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 only partially effective, and there is 
evinced a decided tendency to instal com- 
plete systems of tile or agricultural pipe 
drains, absolutely on the lines of old- 
world methods. The value of full-bearing 
well-seleoted orchards in Mildura now 
reaches to over £100 per acre, so that the 
comparatiuely heavy initial outlay is not 
so severely felt. 
The spectacle, however, of a country 
like the mallee frontage to the Murray 
River, at Mildura, requiring sub-soil pipe 
drainage is sufficiently startling, and 
must inevitably give much food for 
June 1, 1907 
om 
thought to those engaged in either 
carrying on or advocatiny irrigation in 
our arid areas. Mildura has, like all the 
mallee areas, soil ranging from almost 
pure sand to sandy clay, witn beds com- 
paratively near the surface of pure arift 
sand, The sub-svil is frequently alinost 
pure rubbly limestono (so: called)—being 
generally the sulphate and rarely the 
carbonate form of lime—while in all 
cases lime in its various compounds is 
largely present. ‘The “‘ water table,’’ save 
in beds of lagoons or swamps—where 
‘water collects in the raimy seasons—is 
geuerally at depths of 80 feet or over, 
The contra is necessarily the volumes of 
water used in irrigating. ‘I'hese are large, 
though probably not excessive, the average 
addition to the perennial crops, such as 
fruit trees, being about 24 inches net, 
ie., without allowing for water sveping 
from the distributary cha.nels. Con- 
sidering that there are many light showers 
which do not get into the sub-soil, the 
result of such hvavy watering 18s equivalent 
to being in a zone of rainfall of about 4 
inches 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 sub-soil drainage. 
In the fruit-growing areas in the south 
pipe draining is becoming more and more 
the rule, whether a limited amount of 
irrigation is practised or whether the 
natural rainfall alone is relied .upon, 
Fruit trees show more quickly than any 
other crop the injurious effects of a 
shallow ‘ water.table.” In the Goulburn 
Valley it will not be long ere drainage 
will be compulsorily resorted tu by the 
orchardists. Already the warnings are 
beigg given. The evil day is being staved 
off by good cultivation, by “ liming,” and 
by careful and economical use of water. 
HKven where as at Bendigo, only com 
paratively small additions of water are 
made by the irrigators, the seaso. just 
past—one of rainfall much beyond the 
average—has shown the need for drainaze, 
many trees having eitner died or received 
@ severe set» back, 
So far, these remarks have deals wholly 
with fruit trees, which receive considerable 
attention, uiuch cultivation, and—most 
important -are watered by furrows and 
not by flooding ‘The case with regard to 
flooding irrigation is more marked. The 
almost invariible practice is to water all 
cereal crops, lucerne, and grasses by 
flooding. Apart from the injurious effects 
of submerging to a greater or less sxtent 
the growing plant, ond preventing the 
natural processes or atmospheric action — 
markedly injurious under the high tem- 
peratures characteristic of our summer 
season—the inadequate preparation ef the 
land calls for the application of a great 
excess of water to parts in order to cause 
the water to reach the higher lands, Con- 
sequently the sub-soil is filled with water, 
and, especially where a “ plough-pan” 
exists—as is usually the case in old culti- 
vation ground—becomes water-logged and 
sour. ‘The soil bacteria are deprived of 
