The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, APRILL 9, 1888. THE IRRIGATION FARM.
The results of the experiment under- * taken by the County Council with a i view to determining and demonstrating, ' by ocular proof, the value of a system of 1 irrigation for agricultural purposes, are • of a highly encouraging nature, and, so 1 far as regards clover and grass, may be s regarded as conclusive. The land I selected for the experimental farm is oi t very poor quality and of a shingly nature, ( and one portion of each crop grown t thereon has been left to the operations of Nature while the other has been, '■ during the season, artificially irrigated, ) and the contrasts m quality and 3 quantity of produce is most marked, f In the one case large, plump, healthy b looking roots such as potatoes, beetj carrots, etc., have been grown, while m the other, from identical seed, the result haa been stunted, miserable, shrivelledup productions not fit' to be named m the same breath. A still more marked contrast appears m clover and graes raised upon the irrigated portions. The farm was entered upon too late to allow of the like experiments being tried with cereal crops, but had the benefits oi irrigation been tested with these we have not the smallest doubt that the result would have been the same ; and it is probable that the Council will decide to set this beyond all question by carrying on the farm for another season, and practically demonstrating the value oi water applied at proper seasons to land under grain crop. This done the experiment will be complete m all its parts and should convince, if anything can convince, the ratepayers of the county of the immense benefits which would accrue from an extensive and complete . system of agricultural irrigation. Mi j Harper, who read the report of the I Irrigation Committee at last meeting oi I the Council, waa emphatic m charactert ising the experiment of irrigation as applied to clover and grass as "a grand success;" with a little pardonable exaggeration describing that which had been irrigated as " a hundred times better " than that . which had not, and expressed himself as 3 so fully convinced of the benefits which would follow a general scheme of irrigation throughout the county that "he believed the Council would get enough revenue from the water to carry out all its works without Jiayjng to raise other rates or taxes." This is, perhaps, n little too good to be true, but we have no doubt whatever that irrigation would yield a revenue sufficient to pay the interest upon the necessary outlay, while at the same time enabling farmers largely to increase the amount of their produce, so largely indeed as to make farming 1 pay a great deal better under an irriga tion rate than without ir. The experience of what has been done m Lombardy and elsewhere points to the possibility of nearly, perhaps quite, doubling the productive capacity of large areas of land upon our plains through the bene- ■ ficial effects of a thorough and systematic scheme of irrigation ; and we hope that farmers generally will acquaint themselves personally with what has been done this season on the Council's experimental farm, and will watch the results of the further operations to be undertaken next season. If they do we are convinced that there will be as the result a consensus of opinion as to the desirableness of carrying out upon a large scale what is now being carried out on a small one, and that the Council will ere long be required by the ratepayers to formulate proposals for the undertaking of extensive works which will have the effect of immensely increasing the productive power of the district.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1810, 9 April 1888, Page 2
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634The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, APRILL 9, 1888. THE IRRIGATION FARM. Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1810, 9 April 1888, Page 2
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