Winter Irrigation of Deciduous Orchards. 21 



occurred the dry est hot period of which there is a record in the 

 valley. At the end of it the orchard showed no signs of drought 



whatever, the peach 

 trees having made 

 a growth of about 

 four feet, and the 

 apricot trees a 

 growth of three to 

 six feet. During 

 the dry, hot period 

 mentioned above, 

 the apricot trees 

 matured a good 

 crop of excellent 

 fruit. Many of the 

 peach trees re- 

 mained unusually 

 heavily loaded with 

 fruit that matured 

 during July and 

 August, the quality 

 being fully up to 

 that of the previous 

 year. 



Though the sum- 

 mer continued un- 

 usually dry (the 

 mean relative hum- 

 idity being the low- 

 est recorded at the 

 Weather Bureau at 



Fig. 5. Branch on peach tree, showing how heavily 



loaded some of the trees were July, 1900, in orchard 



irrigated during winter only. 



Phoenix), the trees 

 maintained a vigorous appearance until November. Though 

 having received no irrigating water for eight months, at the end 

 of a season during which many orchards died, no thriftier or 

 more vigorous orchard existed in the valley. 



The following monthly averages will indicate the nature of 

 the weather of 1900, the temperatures being those of the farm, 



