Note Footnote c: — Chapter V

Information from the Hydraulic Engineer's office shows that up to the end of May last there were 716 flowing bores in Queensland, pouring forth an enormous supply of sparkling water estimated at slightly over 479¼ million gallons a day, equal to a discharge of 175,000 million gallons per annum.c This flow, if conserved in tanks and pipes, would furnish a population of nearly 12 millions with 40 gallons of water per capita a day. It would irrigate 644,366 acres of cultivated land with 12 inches of water per annum.d An area so irrigated, utilised solely for wheat-growing, would produce, at 20 bushels per acre, nearly 13 million bushels of grain, which is equal to 28·87 per cent. of the entire Commonwealth wheat crop for the year 1907-8. The average Commonwealth yield for the last five years, however, was 61½ million bushels. The average area under wheat for the same period was 5,864,114 acres, the average yield for the Commonwealth therefore being slightly over 10½ bushels to the acre. As much wheat is cut for fodder, and as irrigated land should produce a largely increased crop, 20 bushels per acre for such land seems a moderate estimate. Moreover, in 1902-3, the Commonwealth crop was under 12½ million bushels, or less than one-fifth of the mean average for the succeeding five years. At the same time the area of land under crop was in 1902-3 but little below the succeeding five-year average on an acre of land.e