42 AGRICULTURE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



to orchard trees, whose roots reach to great depths in 

 well-tilled soils. 



The heavy rains called cloud-bursts sometimes pene- 

 trate only a fraction of an inch in compact soils, even 

 though several inches of rain may fall. 



To make the best use of the rain as it falls, the farmer 

 must plow deeply in order to enable the roots to pene- 

 trate deeply. To help the storing of the rain water in 

 his land, he must keep the surface loose and open, so 

 that the rain may soak in quickly instead of running 

 off and perhaps washing the soil away. In this way 

 good crops may be grown even with only twelve to 

 fifteen inches of rainfall. This is called "'dry farming " 

 ; (^age49). 



Ground or bottom water: wells. The water soaks 

 down into the land, and, if there is enough of it, it 

 finally reaches a level where it meets the water already 

 in the land. This level is called the bottom- or 

 ground-water level, and it is to this level that we 

 usually dig our wells to find enough water for house- 

 hold use and for watering stock. 



Artesian wells. The dug wells just spoken of do not 

 often supply water enough for irrigation. For this we 

 have to bore wells to such depths as will reach the 

 water which comes down underground from the moun- 

 tains (or at least from higher ground). Such water 

 rises in the bore hole, sometimes above the surface. 

 In the last case we have artesian or flowing wells 



