14
"Why was it reclaimed? It was very rich soil. It was said to be second only to the richest in the world which is the Nile. Historically it's much easier to live on the valley bottom than on the mountain slopes. Everybody likes flat land and the soil's better, but, there is a danger of flooding."- Bill Constable
15
By the 1880s, the Valley's rich agricultural potential had long been recognised. Even today, the debate over who was actually the first to come up with the idea of reclaiming the Creston flats for farmland triggers heated arguments - but, whoever the originator of that idea may have been, it fell to an ambitious Englishman to undertake the first effort of reclamation. |
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