WHAT AMERICANS LEARNED IN CALIFORNIA. 35 



results so surprising in size of vegetables and in yield of grain that 

 reports sent to the east had to be accompanied with affidavits to 

 secure attention, and even then not always credence. When it was 

 demonstrated by the behavior of the plants that applications of water 

 were not needed as frequently as the mission farmers made them, less 

 water was used and more surface stirring undertaken and then came 

 the discovery that plants which made their chief growth in the warm, 

 moist, winter weather and those which rooted deeply even though 

 they had to grow all through the dry summer, could in many cases 

 reach most satisfactory production without any artificial application of 

 water, if the normal rainfall was adequate and the soil retentive 

 enough naturally and sufficiently cultivated during the growth of the 

 plant. Thus arose in California sixty years ago the first demonstra- 

 tion of the principles which are now the chief asset of "dry farming" 

 and which are sometimes claimed to be recent discoveries. 



But although these early Californians did demonstrate that under 

 certain conditions plants can be grown under scant rainfall by tillage 

 instead of irrigation, they also determined another fact of even wider 

 importance, viz: that irigation is not a proper substitute for tillage 

 and that instead of being feasible to keep pouring more water to save 

 the cost of tillage, it is required for the thrift of the plant that the 

 more frequent the application of water the more frequent must be the 

 tillage. Instead of a rule of "more water less tillage", which the 

 Spanish settlers of California seemed to proceed upon, the true rule 

 as demonstrated by their American successors is "more irrigation 

 more tillage." This is now the accepted policy and practice in all 

 irrigated regions of the earth whence has come knowledge of Cali- 

 fornia's achievements in horticulture and the way they are secured. 



The Reasons for Soil-Working With Watering. Space is not 

 available to explain in detail why tillage and irrigation must be always 

 associated and keep pace with each other toward the full development 

 of the plant and its products. A few of the reasons may be stated, 

 however, without attempt to fully support them: 



First. Tillage opens the soil for the reception of water and is 

 even more important for the admission of water by irrigation than 

 by rainfall, because an irrigated surface becomes more densely and 

 deeply compacted by the puddling action of a volume of water than 

 by the action of rainfall, even when the latter comes in heavy down- 

 pours. In fact, soil compacted by irrigation becomes loosened and 

 disintegrated by the action of subsequent rainfall. 



Second. For the same reason the penetration of irrigation is less 

 than that of the same amount of water falling as rain or snow, and 

 the consequent formation of an excessive amount of surface roots not 

 only continually lessens this penetration but increases the danger of 



