Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/289

?75 with ?e surrounding country being assured by a system of ruddy Throughout arranged both the roads and railway branches. towns and irrigated f?m lands the State Departments have made the utmost use of every device of m. odern civilization, not only improving the efficiency of agriculture, but also improving the social atmosphere. The farmers for for will reside on their own farms, but they will never be more than a very few miles f?m a smal? town, nor will they be far from one another. Numerous metalled roads will enable the produce to be marketed cheaply, and materials and commodities needed for the farming and for the life of the family csu be obtained from the railway station ?t ? small expense. In conclusion it may be said that the scheme is a truly notable example of. a colonization enterprise planned out in every detail and providing the neces- sary variety for every type of settler. It shows what may be achieved by the thorough co-operation of the Agricultural and Public Works Departments with the Oivil ?nd Educational Departments of the Government. Formerly irrigation in Australia was regarded as merely an adjunct to the pastoral industry for the purpose of raising fodder crops during periods of drought, and this involved extensive local irrigation; but it gradually came to be recognized that "water. in Australia was as gold, and was so to be husbanded that the utmost result was got from it". So a new policy of laying out concentrated i.rrigation settlements on lands most suitable for the purpose of intensive cultivation was adopted. This involves "a' minimum length o! channel, minimum loss o! water, and concentration o! holdings". The Murrumbidgee project is the outcome of this policy; and the scientific thoroughness with which the whole scheme has been carried out from the preliminary work down to the allotment of holdings