Artesian Irrigation.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13438, 9 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

Artesian Irrigation.

A DEFECT AND ITS REMEDY

Some experiments are now proceeding in ths> laboratory of the Department of Agriculture of New South Wales which may have an effect upon the interior of that State-, and, indeed, upon the whole agricultural system of the world, of a character so far-reaching as to be almostincalculable. It has been an unfortunately established fact up to the present that the artesian waters of the mother State, which are strongly impregnated with carbonate of soda, are injurious to plant life, and that this chemical, acting upon the soil, produces silicate of soda, which has a peculiarly binding and hardening effect, rendering it almcst impossible of cultivation. Mr R. S. Symmonds, one of the chemists in the Government service, having conceived the idea that the carbonate of soda could be converted into nitrate of soda, a valuable fertiliser, by the addition of nitric acid, has been trying the effect of adding nitric acid in very small proportions to soil impregnated with artesian water. The result has been, so far, extraordinary. Two grains of wheat, placed in a pot- of the soil as originally obtained, yielded 2.65 grains of wheat, while other pots containing the same quantity of wheat to which .2 per cent and .5 per cent and 1 per cent of nitric acid had been added, yielded an increase of from eight to tenfold. These experiments, seem to indicate the certainty ,of an increased of yield from the chemical alteration effected, and the question now becomes largely one of ecst. Nitric acid, it seems, is now being produced in Europe at a cost of £8 3s 6d per ton, but it is suggested that with the power" of the artesian flow available this acid can be produced on the spot at a greatly reduced cost from the atmosphere, and if this be the case an enormous field of enterprise would be opened up. Certainly one of the great defects of our arid interior in drought time would be overcome, both as to fodder and water supply for stock, even- if agriculture be not possible on a large scale-, and the results of the fuller experiments should be awaited with great interest. • ■>.