IRRIGATION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1217, 27 January 1886, Page 3

IRRIGATION.

By Don Carlos.

The great difference between civilised man and his savage brother consists very much in the power that science, which is nothing more than hoarded experience; has given the former over the elements. Whilst the untutorsd Bavage cowers and trembles at the thunder, dreading it as the voice of a great Manito, civilised man puts up his lightning-rod and draws dawn the subtle fluid to the earth, he meanwhile unharmed and unfearing. The child of Nature looks out on the ocean — the Wainui— and dreams of the Hawaiki whence, his legends tell him, hia forefathers came ; but the wise Pakeha launches his ship and steams away over the great expanse till he reaches his home country,—" his march is o'er the mountain wave ; his home is on the deep." Many are the advantages of civilisation : Variety of clothing to shelter and protect from summer's heat and winter's cold, implements for tillage, means of correspondence and intercommunication, the healing art and surgery, and although we have not reached perfection in our civilisation, we look forward hopefully to the future. We have not yet arrived at any practical method of overruling or regulating the supply of rain, neither have we any control over the sunshine. It has been affirmed, however, that electricity applied in some way will bring on a downpour of rain, but this we know that large rivers flow in every province of New Zealand, and that where the drought this season has been most severe, a complete system of irrigation would have had a moat beneficent effect on crops and stock. As the Colony becomes more thickly settled, [ this is a subject that will force itself upon

the people, for in a denser population a sodden scarcity of water will be more severely felt than at present. In China cultivation of the soil is greatly dependent on irrigation, and in India the Govern* ment have so far recognised the importance of the matter that it has substantially encouraged and assisted, as well as taken in hand the construction of irrigation canals. In Italy, Spain, and even in America and Australia irrigation is attended to ; but in New Zealand, except, perhaps, in some portions of Canterbury, we are not aware of anything of the sort ever having been done. A very instructive article on this subject appeared in last Saturday's " Press." Dealing with irrigation in New Zealand, Mr Edward Dobson, C.E., an expert in these matters, says that he regards the i question of water-supply as " the leading question of the day for New Zealand ; far more important than railways or deferredpayment settlements. . . . Look at the beneOt to the stock by what has been done already. The sheep do not die in a dry season — they grow more wool, and that in a more even fleece, and they grow a good deal heavier carcasses. There is quite as much improvement on the agricultural side, by watering the cereals and the root crops." In seasons of unusual drought all will acknowledge that some sort of water-supply from cur great rivers would be of advantage, but they do not subscribe to the necessity for a constant water-supply in ordinary seasons. There are men in these districts who will tell you in the most innocent manner that we get plenty of rain to satisfy the wants of stock and sufficient for the profitable cultivation of crops. Such men might learn a good dpal by the study of agricultural chemistry. Water is the great factor in breaking up the soil, in softening and dissolving it so that the plant can extract its inorganic food from the earth in the form of potash ur soda, phosphoric acid, magnesia, lime, etc. In very dry seasons the crop doea not thrive because the ground is too hard, the soil is so compact that it cannot extract the ingredients which it requires for food ; in other words, water is needed to do the work of mastication, and the reason why the crops ripen off is not so much because of the heat of the sun's rays as through want of sustenance. Irrigation would nullify the scarcity of rain to a great extent, and if industriously applied in summertime, by supplying the crops with more food from the ground, would give a fuller body to the grain as well as plenty of straw.

Since writing the above, I have met with the following in a country newspaper on the aame subject, and take the liberty of copying it. — •• Take the Crookston district, with its magnificent watersupply from the Blue Mountains, for example. The paddocks right through the plain could nearly all be irrigated at a trifling cost. In America and Australia farmers would be considered mad if, in a dry season, they allowed fine streams of water to run through their properties without any attempt to utilise them in assisting growth on their properties. Irrigating not only confers an immediate benefit on the land treated during warm, dry weather, but by depositing silt from the mountains, permanently enriches the soil,"