IRRIGATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1437, 21 December 1886, Page 3

IRRIGATION.

The information given us by a gentleman who has receutly paid a visit to Italy, of the wonderfully beneficial results obtained from irrigation in Lombardy, makes it the more to be regretted that more active steps have not been taken with a view to carrying out a thorough system of irrigation in this county. Our informant states that the plains of Lombardy are in everyway interior to the Canterbury Plains, yet with an abundant supply of water the yield of various descriptions of crop is something marvellous. What has been done here in the way of waterraces has resulted most satisfactorily, and the County Council deserves the greatest possible credit for what it has accomplished, but the results already obtained are only an earnest of what might be done, and instead of inducing us to rest content, should incite tq further enterprise in the same direction. We are, indeed, surprised to find that farmers and property owners generally are not anxious to push on a complete irriga lion scheme, and can only attribute their apparent apathy to a want of appreciation of the benefits which would follow therefiom. Here and there, too, there are prejudices to be overcome, and narrow views entertained, which are absolutely surprising. For example, at one of the meetings recemly held to discuss the Council’s proposals a farmer stated it as his opinion that ‘ if the country was irrigated we should have such heavy crops that we could not find sale for the produce and although this is the first occasion on which we ever heard of a farmer desiring to grow only half a crop, that he was not alone in his views was evidenced by the fact that his argument was backed up by not a few of those present. Other farmers think that the irrigation scheme might prove a failure, and hence hesitate to incur liabilities which they fear might not he counterbalanced by coiresponding advantages. Under these circumstances, we are more than ever convinced that the only practicable plan is for the County authorities to select, as we urged on a previous occasion, a block of land for conducting an experimental scheme on a small scale. Let, say, 400 acres be operated upon, half the area being placed under crop of different kinds in the ordinary way, and the other half tinder similar crops, but systematically irrigated. This would afford a test by actual results of what irtigatiou may be expected to accomplish, and if, as we believe, would be the case, the results obtained demonstrated that irrigation would pay, and pay well, then there can be no doubt that the County Council would 'find thfeir constituents eager to Assist in 1 carrying out' irrigation works upon an extensive and comprehensive scale,