4Grt THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



Experiments on the Dore and Baker Tracts. 



In 1906 additional work was undertaken by the Irrigation Investi- 

 gations and the State Engineering Department of California in the 

 P'resno lands needing drainage, the purpose this time being to shoAv 

 experimentally the benefits of drainage. Two tracts were selected for 

 experiments, one of 20 acres at North and Elm avenues, known as the 

 Baker tract, and one of 40 acres on the farm of Mr. John S. Dore, three 

 and one half miles west and one half mile south of the Baker tract. 

 The Baker tract is underlain unevenly with hardpan and the accumu- 

 lation of alkali was thought to be as heavy as on any other tract in the 

 affected district. About one half of the tract had never produced crops 

 of any kind and practically no profits had been obtained from the rest 

 for several years. The Dore tract, on the other hand, was a finely kept 

 vineyard that had been very profitable but that had begun to fail 

 rapidly, about one fourth of the vines being already dead. 



The plans of the experiments on the Baker and Dore tracts and the 

 immediate results obtained are fully discussed in Bulletin 217 of the 

 Office of Experiment Stations of the Department of Agriculture. Both 

 experiments involved the laying of main and lateral tile lines, ranging 

 from 8 inches down to 4 inches in diameter, and leading to sumps from 

 which the drainage water could be lifted by electric pumping plants and 

 carried to nearby irrigation canals. The least depth at which the tile 

 was laid was 3.5 feet, the average depth being 4.5 feet and the outlets 

 into the sumps being 6 or 7 feet below the surface. The local difficulties 

 encountered are fully detailed in the bulletin mentioned, including the 

 necessity for blasting the hardpan on part of the Baker tract at a cost 

 of about $10 to about $14 per acre. After the tile and pumping systems 

 had been completed both tracts were flooded to a depth of about 12 or 

 more inches. The Baker tract was flooded intermittently through the 

 spring of 1907. On the Dore tract flooding occurred for ten days the 

 first spring, and from the following fall to the first week in March, 1908. 



Results. 

 Baker Tract. — Following the flooding and the operation of the pump- 

 ing plant on this tract a marked improvement was apparent in the color 

 and tilth of the soil. Two small tracts were planted to muscat vines, 

 practically all of which lived and made a healthy growth throughout 

 the first summer. The remainder of the tract was seeded about June 

 1st, four acres planted to sorghum growing spotted patches of fodder 

 8 or 9 feet high and yielding 1.5 tons per acre, the spotting being due 

 to the presence of hardpan on the one hand and to the breaking up of 

 some of this hardpan by blasting on the other. This tract has not been 

 flooded since the time of the experiment in 1907 and 1908 and the pump 

 Las not been operated by the owner of the tract since 1909. Neither 

 has the owner made any effort to cultivate or crop it since then, with 

 the exception of seeding a small portion to barley the first season after 

 the experiment was concluded by the Irrigation Investigations. At 

 present the tract is abandoned to Bermuda and salt grass pasture and 



