CHAPTER XIII 

 IRRIGATING PEACHES 



Most peach orchards in the intermountain and Pacific 

 Coast states are maintained under irrigation. In the inter- 

 mountain states the orchards are practically all located in 

 valleys, and in the Pacific Coast regions they occupy both 

 valley and foothill locations. These are all semi-arid regions 

 where there is little rainfall. There is practically no orchard 

 irrigation in the humid parts of the country. 



Irrigation is largely an engineering feature. This is true 

 at least to the point of getting the water to the orchard, 

 including also putting the orchard site into the proper con- 

 dition for the distribution of the water. 



As a rule, a site suitable for irrigation presupposes an area 

 that is uniformly and regularly though but slightly sloping. 

 If the surface is not naturally regular and uniform, a prac- 

 tically perfect plane, it is made so by grading and leveling. 

 However, this is not necessarily the case, since the orchards 

 in the foothill location shown in Plate II are irrigated 

 through furrows which are accurately placed according to 

 the contours. 



The discussion in the present connection does not concern 

 any of the engineering features of the operation, nor in 

 any large measure the details of practice, since they are 

 fundamentally the same wherever irrigation is carried on 

 and whatever the crop. There are, however, very naturally 

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