EXAMPLES OF DROUGHT RESISTANCE. 13 



an abundant flow of water from deep borings, in which the water 

 rises to within 40 to 50 feet of the surface, seems to confirm the 

 impression. 



The ranch of which the olive orchard forms a part Hes fully 3 

 miles south of the main Santa Cruz channel, with a gentle slope 

 toward it. A heavy mesquite growth had first to be removed as a 

 preparation for planting, and much growth of the same nature is 

 still to be found adjacent, indicating the presence of a water supply 

 at a depth of 30 to 50 feet. The soil contains a large percentage of 

 coarse granitic sand, but with enough clay to give it considerable 

 body and cause it to bake when dry. (See Tables IV and V.) 



THE BOGART-DEGOLIA OLIVE GROVE. 



According to the best testimony available, the Bogart-Degolia 

 ranch was planted in 1S93. It was at the time of the highest pros- 

 perity of the so-called Florence canal, which took water from the 

 Gila River near the town of Florence. About 20 acres of the ranch 

 were set to Muscat and Thompson seedless grapes, figs, apricots, 

 prunes, and olives, there being perhaps 5 acres of olives. The sup- 

 ply of water, while never abundant, was adequate for several years, 

 and the enterprise gave every promise of success. 



Owing to the partial failure of the water for the past seven or 

 eio-ht vears, the trees have had no water save the rainfall and a little 

 local run-off that the otherwise dry ditches carried to the orchard. 



We have no record of the exact order in which the trees began to 

 perish. When examined in March, 1907, all the trees planted were 

 dead except the olives, a few Arizona ash {Fraxinus velutina) which 

 had been set along the main ditch where they could profit by the 

 run-off which it could collect, and a few fig trees which still sent 

 feeble sprouts from the base. Appearances would indicate, however, 

 that the apricots and prunes were the first to succumb, followed by 



the figs. 



After the place was deserted, cattle and horses dependent on the 

 scanty desert herbage broke into the inclosure and attacked the 

 olive trees, browsing off all of the tender growth within reach. This 

 fact in itself bears testimony to the scantiness of forage on this plain, 

 for of all the forms of vegetation brt)Ught forward as forage jjlants 

 the olive has not so far been considered in the United States." Many 

 of these trees were browsed and broken till mere prongs and stubs, 

 3 or 4 feet high, were all that was left of theuL None of the trees 

 seem to have been pruned from the first, and the greater number of 

 them had formed several divergent stems from the ground. It was 



a Mr. Thomas H. Kearney states that during dry years in Algeria branches cut 

 from olive trees are a regular forage supply. See Bulletin 80, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, p. 80. 

 192 



