Publisher's Synopsis
The pervading theme of the book is the struggle to "green a brown land". The early settlers applied English farming methods developed in a green land of cool, moist summers. During the ensuing 200 years these methods had to be relearned in a brown land of long dry spells. The attempts to grapple with sustained aridity are explored within three themes: the destruction of the native grasslands and the struggle to regreen them with sown pastures, the development of cropping practices appropriate to a land of long dry summers, and the attempt to green the land by developing large irrigation schemes.;Bringing a historical perspective to the current debate on sustainable development and exposing the negative "doomsday" and positive "scientistic" approaches to rural land use, this book features a range of regional case studies including new data about the social aspects of land use. It is illustrated with historical photographs and paintings.
