The world's deftest job of land reclamation was going great guns this week in southern Australia. Every fortnight, the Australian Mutual Provident (life insurance) Society plans to turn out a new, 1,000-acre farm. The land it uses is part of the "Ninety-Mile Desert" southeast of Adelaide, covered until recently only with sparse, unhealthy scrub.
The Ninety-Mile Desert was a painful puzzle to Australia's early settlers. Its rainfall was 20 inches a year, which is good enough for dry Australia, and plenty for many crops. But somehow, nothing desirable grew there. Even sheep did not thrive: they got strange diseases, and their wool...
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