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   THE old order changes, of this there can be no doubt, and these changes are rapidly taking us away from the older, unplanned, haphazard use of land, with its emphasis on the next crop or the next wool clip. The mining of the fertility of the soil will soon have no part in Australian agriculture; and if the changes on my own properties are a glimpse of the future ahead, then the vision is indeed splendid. In contrast to the former yellow dead earth, poor grasses and sparse trees, we have now the darkening soil, the longer-lasting, all-pervading green of the pastures and the new luxuriance of the trees as striking evidence of the influence which the new design can have on the whole landscape.

   Convincing the skeptics is usually an easy matter if the skeptics will come back again, and those whose interests in the land brought them back to "Nevallan" two or three times are now the most enthusiastic expounders of the principles and techniques of Keyline.

   For myself, the whole development of Keyline, of which the first experiments had no real point until the problem of producing good soil from almost nothing had been solved, has been a fairly long task. In every way it was much more difficult than an ordinary manufacturing or construction project where, after the planning, there follows the "tooling-up" for the job. But originally there were no plans, only the search for a plan; and there were no tools to tool-up for the job; and until the plan started to emerge there was no way of really knowing just the type of tools that were needed.

   I was always interested in water control, and whether experimenting with "wild flood" or contour furrow irrigation or getting oneself saturated watching run-off in heavy rainfall, the flowing water seemed to hold many of the answers to the questions of land.

   There was so much trial-and-error work to be done which in the first place involved miles of levelling work, and usually I did myself, in order that we could determine where water would flow and where it would not, that a simple levelling device which could be used by anyone became an absolute essential. The development of our own level was a big step forward, as it put into the hands of the farmer himself, as well as our own men, an important necessary tool. Then, after my own earlier and somewhat heavy implements, the redesigned chisel plow was of outstanding assistance for the more intimate control of the soil climate, an essential approach in Keyline. Our early contour map must surely have been of great assistance in the final understanding of the agricultural land shapes of Keyline, and the application of aerial photographs and solid models, made the teaching of Keyline, which was not quite the simple task I had at first imagined, an easier matter. There were many designs which were developed and tried in the construction of farm irrigation dams, and long and sometimes costly experiments were completed before I finally decided upon the cheapest and fastest method of constructing them, together with their water conservation and irrigation drains., Since the water conservation drain and the dams of Keyline were to be the most permanent man-made structures on the land, these designs were of outstanding importance.

   Good soil is the secret, and everything that is planned and everything that is done on the farm, the sowing or the cultivation of the soil, or even just the moving of stock from paddock to paddock, all have to be planned and carried out, always bearing in mind the effect that these things can have on the soil. The cultivation of the soil in such a way that the pasture is not destroyed and the best conditions of moisture, warmth and air, are created, became a precise Study, since cultivation can destroy as well as improve the soil. But when all these things were put right, everything looked just fit and proper, with the trees in their wide belts appearing as sentinels guarding the soil and pasture which they are sometimes thought to destroy.

   The voice of the visitor (usually men and women from the land and also including many from other walks of life) has been one of acclaim for Keyline, and the Sunday afternoon farm walks, which became a special feature at "Nevallan", have been a source of pleasure to me and to many others, and also led to the discovery of new knowledge.

   The vindication of the whole work has been in the test of time. At the moment, there is a sense of pleasure and great relief being felt over much of eastern Australia occasioned by the breaking of a drought (end of January, 1958) and an 18 months' absence of run-off, but there is something very much more than this in our own farm people. There is an infectious feeling of excitement and achievement about them that could hardly have been greater if each one had been directly responsible for the recent beneficial rains.

   When our manager returned to "Kencarley" in January from his holidays he found the place somewhat of a disappointment. He had expected a big improvement from over an inch of rain which fell just after Christmas and while he was away, but there was only the dust previously churned up by the machines and the heat of high summer and the general look of drought. Still, the seeming miracle of soil change does not take place in one year, particularly when it is a drought year. By contrast, the picture at "Nevallan" from brief rain at the end of December was a different one altogether. There, the rich, deep, but now dry soil absorbed the rain and almost immediately the place responded with a remarkable new growth. However, back in the middle of the recent short yet severe drought, I had insisted on carrying out our programmes despite the dry conditions. We continued to sell fat cattle and replaced them with a new breeding herd, and the flock of sheep at "Nevallan" were kept there throughout the whole of the drought. I had planned also that the old dams which had been originally equipped with four-inch outlets through the wall, would be emptied and the small pipes replaced with eight-inch lockpipes. It had been found that the large lockpipes greatly speeded up the work of irrigating and the big flow of water had improved the even distribution of the irrigation water. The cutting of the big V-shaped excavations through the old walls, which were about 24 feet high, appeared to be quite a big job; however, it was accomplished very simply, but now four large dams in the main valley of "Yobarnie" stood empty, and we did not know, of course, that there were ten further months of drought to come. Following the floods in the early part of 1956, the succeeding twelve months from June, 1956, to June, 1957, provided only seven inches of rain, and we were to go on for over eighteen months without any run-off. However, "Nevallan", in its first drought, had come through well and our many visitors remarked on its excellent condition. It produced an immediate response from the rain at the end of the year, and with the coming of heavy rain at the end of January, the effect in a few days had been a complete vindication of our belief in the overpowering influence of good soil. In the last week of January there was over six inches of rainfall, and, exactly as expected, three inches were promptly absorbed into the soil before water started to flow in the water conservation drains.

   At "Kencarley", near Orange, the depressing effect of the dry spell has gone. There, after 2-1/2 inches of rainfall, the drains began to flow. A large water conservation drain carries the water from higher country through a low saddle into the valley of "Kencarley" Basin, which is our largest dam. The drain is over ten feet wide at the bottom with flat sloping sides and it is three feet deep. It, like the pasture paddocks and the walls of all the dams, had been cultivated and sown to grasses with a dressing of superphosphate. "Kencarley" Basin was still empty, but after 2-1/2 inches of rain the biggest drain started to flow, and with the rain continuing, everyone on the property was watching the rather impressive sight. Although with three million gallons now in the Basin, it is little enough compared to the size of the dam which will hold 120 million gallons when filled, but it must have been exciting for the men responsible to see their work tested and proved by the big stream of flowing water. This large drain empties water, as I have mentioned, through a saddle to flow into the valley of "Kencarley" Basin. The valley floor of the Basin, formerly a wet marshy place of almost useless land, had dried out in the drought and had been cleared, keyline cultivated and sown to pasture grasses right to the wall of the dam. Yet the large volume of flowing water spread widely in the cultivated land of the valley and moved into the area of the dam as a broad, flat and shallow sheet. There was no movement of the plowed soil. The water now in this dam covers less than two acres of the dam's 40 acres of water line area, so that until there is further run-off rainfall the rest of the 40 acres of the floor of the dam will probably be our best new pasture paddock. Of course, "Kencarley" Basin could fill in a few days if we get rains of the type we had in early 1956, before work on the dam had started, or we could go two years without seeing it filled. It has been an experience of ours over the years for someone to always predict that each large dam, as we built it, would never fill. So more than one person has predicted that the Basin will not fill. "Kencarley" Basin is our latest experimental dam and our largest farm dam. It is built with steeper batters to the wall than any wall we have built as large and as as high as this one; and as part of the experiment there are other features under test. So while it may do any number of things, we feel certain about one thing, namely, that this large dam will fill up with water.

   There is a dam at the bottom end of the gorge on "Kencarley" which is probably the most interesting farm dam we have yet built. It has a capacity of 12 million gallons, and, aided by its steep catchment, is fairly well filled at present. It is holding our first irrigation water, but 800 acres of irrigated land on "Kencarley" is our minimum target. Now, the big change will be in the soil where this rain, the first soaking rainfall that the new work has received, will start the real cycle of soil improvement. There have been very big changes this year in the landscape, with the dam building and the clearing on the Keyline pattern, and the cultivating and sowing of the pasture areas, so that soon the real soil improvement should start.

   The rewards (and there are great rewards in land work that result from seeing the plans of development unfold so rapidly) are well worthwhile. The plan of the work that has been laid down is like a trustworthy and successful friend. The plan seems to promise that if the work is done according to the design, then the results will be very rewarding, not only in themselves, but to the farmer, who feels satisfaction and pleasure in work well done, but knows also that there w ill be the monetary profits that must be the proof of all successful working of land.

   I realised a year or two ago that another book on Keyline would become necessary, but it was not until three months ago that I felt any urgency about the matter. I was talking to a farmer on his own land, a fine and highly productive property. His home was comfortable, with the gracious and secure look from trees planted years ago, and altogether with his wife and family this was a man whom many people would envy. Inevitably, we talked of land and soil; of hills, ridges and valleys, and soon I was interpreting the shapes and forms of Keyline on his own land and probably producing in his mind a picture that he found good. Then he said, "If I did not own this land, I'd buy it." He told me he had read "The Keyline Plan", indeed several times, but that what I had just said was not in that book and he wanted to read it in a book. Like everything that is alive and vital, Keyline had to grow and expand, and, if in Chapter VI, by setting out the shapes of land in better sequence than in my earlier book, "The Keyline Plan", I am able to make the farmer see the value, and interest him in, the shapes and form of his land, then my farmer friend, I hope, will be answered and satisfied.

   There has been this sense of urgency in the writing of the book now, as 1958 is rapidly unfolding glimpses of successes to come for Keyline. There have been enquiries from official sources in Australia and other countries, advice sought on broad important national aspects of land and water, and there have been more visits from overseas agriculturalists. One overseas agriculturalist spent weeks studying Keyline and left convinced that his own country must adopt it widely. Innumerable suggestions have come from our many new friends. Some have been practical, some impractical, others very simple if they had only included the money with which to carry them out, but all indicating great enthusiasm for what should be done now about Keyline. I have recently learned that Keyline will be the subject of an important agricultural lecture to be delivered in England this year by a visiting Australian scientist who will present it as a discovery of some value. This is probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime happenings, and, quite apart from the fact that a trip I had proposed to make was planned from the middle of last year, I feel I should not miss such an event.

   Although the work of developing and improving land, which constitutes really the building of a new landscape, is never done, yet with this book now finished I do feel that the development of Keyline as a theory and practice is completed. I suppose one could say that the whole scheme has constituted years of hard work, although I have never felt that way about it, as the improving of land always involved the proving of men too, and so the making of new and genuine friendships has made the work one of pleasure as well as all-absorbing satisfaction.

   Yet there is something more to go on with. Although I do not want to emphasise any one aspect in the overall planning of land on Keyline, there should be a further mention of the farm dam. Over the recent years there has been a tendency on the part of many farmers to regard the possibilities in these structures more seriously. Since 1944, many thousands of people have seen our farm irrigation dams, and no doubt much of this awakening interest in the farm dam has been occasioned by our own work and by those who, having seen the work, have commenced their own, water conservation schemes on the larger scale which we have always employed. There have been also increasing suggestions that something more should be done officially on farm water conservation. In N.S.W. there was enacted in 1946 a farm water supply bill aimed at assisting farmers. At that time the whole matter consisted in providing financial assistance to farmers to build dams, and it was assumed that everything was known about the matter and that the farmer only needed financial assistance. The usual stereotyped plan was issued but has not greatly encouraged any rapid increase in dam construction, although the few engineers employed have more work than they can handle. In 1946 there was need for something more embracing and which would involve the whole agricultural outlook, so that the farm dam could fit into the picture in its most valuable form. At that time, also, as has been mentioned, the matter was almost completely divorced from agriculture, and this alone was a tremendous handicap; and then the whole scheme depended for success on a few engineers, but the task was so big that only good designs, which would have enabled the farmers to effectively control the main work themselves, could have succeeded as broadly as the scheme merited.

   Without being too emphatic about the matter, I do point out that the type of wide investigations that were necessary then have now been largely completed by my own experiments in this work, and that if Governments do follow the line now developing in public opinion and do decide to fully investigate the almost limitless possibilities of the farm dam, then I suggest that in the first instance a full investigation of our own experiments and development methods be undertaken. These cover a somewhat broader field than is presented in this book. For instance, we have repaired broken dams which have failed, after being constructed by others, for farmers on their own properties and investigated the reasons and the cause of failure. In the occasional cutting of the wall of an old dam which we had constructed ourselves, experience has been gained on the effect that various construction methods produce in the dam wall after ten years or more. As farmers sometimes react to large dams by thinking that they are on occasions waste of land, this aspect of the matter has been studied and investigated to determine the most practical uses of such a dam in a general farm water conservation scheme and to determine also the methods of construction that will leave the dam in a position when empty to be used as very valuable country for the growing of special crops. As mentioned earlier, explosives have been used in various ways to cure dam seepage, and we have been able to determine within reasonable bounds just where they are suitable for certain purposes. While there are further investigations that I believe should be made, it is also apparent that our own work will indicate where these investigations should lie. In the first place, a critical examination of the basic designs for dams as set out in this book should indicate whether there is any merit in my suggestions.

   If my own view is accepted that the present approach and use of farm conserved water is completely inadequate, then it would also be apparent that the wide investigations, many of a trial-and-error nature, that would otherwise have to be made would involve the expenditure by the Government of a very large amount of money and many years of work to cover the experiences that we have had over about twenty years, fifteen of which were in the agricultural field and all connected with farm water supply. However, the full results of our work are freely available to our Governments and could be put into effect at once. It is to be hoped that in recommending action, however, any investigation committee would do so, not as the result of a casual inspection of a few hours or a day, but only after thorough study had proved the outstanding worth and value of this wide new approach to the problem of farm water supply.

   The work of providing the farm dams that are necessary is a grandiose enough scheme for any of our planners, and if the dams are required, then nothing should be permitted to stop rapid progress in the work. As for money, if the amount spent in one week in wartime were made available to finance the initiation of a scheme, then its completion would be definitely assured.

   Even as this is being written, very good rains are continuing to fall on our properties and over much of N.S.W. Everywhere around us great quantities of valuable water are being wasted as run-off, and destruction by river floods is again taking place. Although this is not the big flood with wide overflow of rivers, water is not only running to waste, but much soil is being swept away with the flood waters.

   From the effect of the heavy rainfall anyone who has vision may see that Keyline has readily achieved on our own land complete agricultural water control, and that it can not only do this on any farm, but it will also produce and maintain its fertile soil in good heart indefinitely.