76 Strawberry-Growing 



growers cultivate through the picking season in order 

 to loosen the ground compacted by pickers and preserve 

 a soil mulch. This is practicable only when the soil is 

 sandy and well drained; a heavy soil might become 

 muddy and disagreeable to the pickers. It would help 

 to prevent the berries from being spattered with dirt 

 if a single narrow furrow is run through each middle to 

 carry off the rainfall. In southern California, straw- 

 berries are tilled throughout the protracted blossoming 

 and ripening period. 



IRRIGATION IN ARID REGIONS 



Irrigation is the handmaid of tillage ; the main object 

 of both is to maintain an adequate supply of moisture 

 in the soil. In arid regions, irrigation of strawberries 

 is indispensable; in humid regions it may be advanta- 

 geous. 



The methods of irrigation in common use are of two 

 types, — gravity or pressure. Gravity irrigation is prac- 

 ticed in arid regions almost exclusively. The water is se- 

 cured from a community irrigation ditch, a local stream, 

 or an open or driven well. Sometimes engine-driven 

 pumps are used to raise the water and impound it in reser- 

 voirs, from which it is distributed upon the land by gravity. 

 In humid regions gravity irrigation is used somewhat, also, 

 but the pressure or overhead spray system finds greater 

 favor. Subirrigation, in which the water is applied be- 

 neath the surface through lines of tile, is not in common 

 use, as it requires special conditions for success. 



Land used for gravity irrigation should have a grade 

 sufiBcient to move the water slowly, yet not be so steep 

 that the soil will wash. A grade of two inches in a hundred 



