74 



Bulletin No. 34, 



WINTER IRRIGATION OF ORCHARDS. 



No. 4, November 15. 



At the Experiment Station Farm during the past year an 

 experiment was made to test the effect of thorough winter irriga- 

 tion of an orchard. An isolated peach and apricot orchard was 

 the special subject of the experiment, although all the orchard on 

 the farm was irrigated more or less thoroughly during the winter" 

 months. The object of the experiment was to ascertain how 

 much summer irrigation might be rendered unnecessary by the 

 application of an abundance of water during the winter. 



Fig. 4. Orchard irrigated during winter and but once during summer; photograph- 

 ed October 8, 1899. 



The orchard selected was irrigated (by the furrow system) 

 eight times from December to March, The last irrigation, during 

 the latter part of March, was an especially thorough one. As soon 

 as the soil was sufficiently dry, to check evaporation, it was har- 

 rowed crosswise of the furrows, and was cultivated twice and 

 plowed and harrowed once during the next three months. Dur- 

 ing the latter part of June the orchard was given a light irriga- 

 tion „ but received no more irrigating water during the remainder 



