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   WE are discovering a new Australia! As yet, few Australians have seen it. Even those of us who see it every day, who live with it and work for it and think about it continuously, only really see it occasionally in imagination. But we have seen it though only in glimpses; nevertheless, hundreds of Australians are trying to develop this picture on their own land.

   Occasionally the farmer sees the picture develop suddenly in a good Spring season but it fades again and is not yet permanent. Excessive heat and the absence of rain bleaches the colour from his picture. The stock droop and lose the proud posture of health and the farmer worries; he talks about the weather; he is always talking about the weather--if only it would rain! The picture has gone. It can return and perhaps he will see glimpses of the picture in the moonlight, when the harsh lines of reality are softened as the film of soil covers and softens the rock formation below. The land scars are hidden in a velvety smoothness.

   Our farmer thinks more about it now. The picture develops and improves in his imagination. Water! The creeks run clear and strong while ponds of water fit snugly into the valleys of his farm like jewels in a landscape of beauty and permanence. Permanence, with trees protecting the land from hot and cold winds alike; trees whose each leaf-fall creates a balance of soil fertility and good pasture, rich dark soil and waving crops.

   Now it is raining! Wonderful, bountiful rain. Heavier now definitely and grass will be clean and fresh in the morning. It may be the reservoir will fill again, the big one. Clear, clean water, moving everywhere and flowing into the higher dams; cool, clean and clear. The reservoir being nearly full, it still has plenty of water in reserve, but none of the water will be lost-not 'til the big low dams at the bottom of the paddocks are filled.

   The thin early morning light is harsh on the true scene; it is just a dream. But the hills are the same. They have maintained that smooth, strong look for thousands of years. There is beauty and promise in the valleys. Despite the immediate valley so badly eroded, he catches a glimpse of the form and usefulness hidden in the shape of the land he knows so well, but rarely "sees", a shape smoothed off by the climate that he lives with, a climate that is not always kind. Water and trees! That is what is missing--water, trees and good soil.

   Another day has arrived. There is work to be done; but while the farmer works he thinks and uses his imagination, for this land will some day fit the picture that lies ahead and which he is now beginning to see more clearly.

   No doubt the picture of this new Australia (which will develop rapidly now, in spite of the effects of drought, flood and bush fire) is different for different people.

   I see it as a picture that looks right, and because it looks right it cannot help but be more beautiful. I see a beautiful and permanent landscape with trees that will hold it in balance, improve the living conditions of stock and humans and protect and form part of all pasture and crop lands.

   In the picture the land will be cleared, but not as of old or so ruthlessly. Trees will be left in broad belts, or be planted to suit the land form, and in association with water storages they will give a new emphasis to the old and beautiful shapes of our hills and valleys.

   Soil will improve until Australian soil everywhere is richer and deeper than nature has ever provided.

   It is a broad picture I see covering quickly the million square miles (the 640,000,000 acres) of our better rainfall areas. It will be a country on which flood rains will fall as "money" to be banked in the richer soils and behind the walls of farm dams. It will be a land that fire cannot burn and in which drought will reveal only the sound efficiency of our farming and grazing methods.

   I believe the general change about to take place will follow the pattern of older developments. It will move from the coast, continuously pushing farther inland the stability and the new permanence of its agriculture. There are such farms and grazing properties, but they are found usually in climatic conditions which are much better agriculturally than our own.

   There is a task to be undertaken. Only the planning and work of our landmen, the farmer who is also a grazier, the grazier who is a good farmer, will produce this new picture and superimpose it on the age-old form of our land. Oils will not make this picture. It is a watercolour. And farm water will mix and spread the pigments of our picture, the delicate balance of many shades of green, the warmer tones of the improving soil dark with stored moisture.

   Since the greatest potential water storage capacity is where the rain falls right where we want it on the soil to colour pastures, crops and trees, and since the greatest potential surface water storage is in the valleys of the farming and grazing properties, the prospects from planned development are immeasurable.

   Though every part of agricultural land development, i.e., the planning, the day-to-day running and the management is important, to us in Australia no item is more vital than the control, conservation and use of water and our control and conservation of water on each separate farm for use on the farm could be the major influence on future agricultural development.

   There is no doubt that the Australian landman is seeing a greater potential in his own land than he ever saw before. His own importance in the Nation's development is becoming much more widely recognised. He has more authorities of the Government assisting him and offering advice than ever before.

   He is ever conscious that there is sufficient knowledge, from accumulated experience, invention and science, to improve and increase agricultural production to any height to which national development could possibly aspire. Yet this knowledge is often difficult to apply. It has not been co-ordinated into practical application in the mind of the average landman. It is all too often presented by segment specialists with insufficient appreciation of basic agriculture. There is a natural tendency for the farmer, bombarded by too specialised knowledge from many quarters, to become confused, and in consequence he makes false starts as the popularity of one subject or another dominates agricultural publicity and thinking for a time. Is there any wonder that at times he sees it as a fascinating but nearly hopeless jigsaw puzzle?

   All knowledge is based on simple fundamental truths. If these can be presented in a reasonable order and relationship to the farmer, he can learn quickly to employ the knowledge to the same extent as if he were master of all these sciences. However, there is-no authority suitably co-ordinating this new knowledge from the various sciences in agriculture to present it to our landmen. The extension work of all Agricultural Departments needs rethinking and recasting.

   If there is need for scientists and new research in agricultural matters--and it is obvious there is--then these men should be presenting their work to our agricultural teachers so that they in turn can present or teach it practically to all the farmers. If some aspect of engineering is necessary or desirable in agriculture, then the engineering aspect should be imparted to all officers of agriculture who contact farmers. The few engineers involved can do little directly for the great number of farmers, but they can instruct a sufficient number of agricultural officers who, in their turn, can teach all the farmers they contact.

   Likewise with soil conservation, if it is a necessary part of farming, then every agricultural officer should know the techniques and be able to advise the farmer. These techniques are very simple and not difficult to learn. If the construction of farm irrigation dams is necessary, then surely all agricultural officers should be fully capable of instructing farmers on how to design and build them.

   All these matters can be fully covered in teaching for practical use in a very simple fashion, and covered, notwithstanding the expert's continuous tendency to preserve his standing by making simple things appear difficult. Or is it that too much has been asked of experts from other fields when agriculture itself should have kept the job in its own hands and closer to the farmer.

   It seems to me that the divorcing of some agricultural matters from our Agricultural Departments is a retrograde step that has cost us an unknown but very great amount of progress, and that the continuance of this division will seriously and still further retard progress.

   No specialist in a segment of agriculture is likely to do as much good for agriculture with his specialty as the general agricultural officer. It is this officer's duty to present the matter more practically to farmers and to ensure that each item of accumulated knowledge is seen in its proper perspective. If all this were done, then the picture of our development would have pattern and meaning and not be just a slowly improving yet formless thing. Our efforts must be the best possible, as nothing less can be tolerated.

   Just as a picture needs a crayon sketch or a line drawing before the real colours are applied, so our farm work needs a planned simplicity of performance that will fix all the sections and pieces together. in orderly and in coordinated design.

   The object of this book is to present a basic design for a more stable and permanent agriculture which will fit into the background of our climate and our landscape, and a design which would have manifold applications beyond our shores. This is not so much a text book as it is a history and a working manual. It is a response to the challenge of our landscape.