Volltext Seite (XML)
154 MANAGEMENT OF WATER. in a strict sense, except where the subjacent rock is nearly naked. Where there is a deep soil of diluvial or alluvial origin, or where it rests upon a calcareous basis, it is naturally adapted for the production of tobacco, grapes, oranges, figs, and many other fruits ; nor, as we have seen, is the culture of some of the cereal plants altogether hopeless, even in dry seasons. When abundant rains have fallen, New Holland becomes a fertile country, in the fullest sense of the word. The vegetative powers which have been weakened or sus pended by long drought, regain their influence, and cause the earth to reassume its verdure with a rapidity which reminds us of the coming up of a Lapland summer. Were the same means adopted in New South Wales as those which, from time immemorial, have been employed in Spain, Syria, and other countries, to combat the in fluence of a dry climate, it seems probable that much land, which is now regarded as barren, would be rendered per manently productive. Should the necessities of a great population ever cause the artificial irrigation of land to be resorted to in Aus tralia, the mechanical skill and the powers of steam, of which a civilized population could avail itself, would render the accomplishment of this simple process as easy and efficacious as it has proved from time immemorial in those parched regions of Asia, the south of Europe, and the north of Africa, whose climate bears a general re semblance to that of Australia. In the formation of tanks and reservoirs another instructive lesson might be gathered from those nations whose climate has taught