164 CALIFORNIA FRUITS I HOW TO GROW THEM 



ness one may find two adjacent growers pursuing different methods, 

 while on coarse porous loams the check system prevails, and on fine, 

 retentive loams, the furrow system is without rival. 



The check system can be seen on the most extensive scale in the 

 upper part of the San Joaquin Valley, where the land is so level and 

 water so abundant that the checks can be measured by acres or frac- 

 tions of acres. In its most perfect form it is found in Orange County 

 and some parts of Los Angeles County, where the checks are measured 

 by feet, rarely by rods. Very large checks are chiefly used for field 

 crops, although also employed for winter irrigation or vineyards and 

 orchards of deciduous fruits. With fruits, however, even in the same 

 district, the tendency is toward using smaller checks carefully leveled 

 before planting. With the large-check system permanent levees, either 

 in rectangular form or on the contour plan, are generally used. The 

 small-check system is chiefly laid off with temporary levees, quickly 

 made with special appliances and as quickly worked back to a level as 

 soon as the ground dries sufficiently after irrigation, and the whole 

 surface kept well cultivated until the time arrives for a restoration of 

 the levees for the next irrigation. The latter is the leading horticul- 

 tural mod. It is carefully described by Mr. Sydmer Ross, of Fuller- 

 ton, Orange County, California, as follows : 



The check system, as carried out in the best-handled orchards, entails much 

 hard work, but after you are through with an irrigation you know that each 

 and every tree has had its full supply of water or you know the reason why. 

 The ground must be cultivated, say, about 5 inches deep, so as to have plenty of 

 loose soil with which to throw up a high ridge. Then a four or six-horse 

 "ridger" should be run once each way through the rows, if it is a citrus or 

 deciduous orchard, or twice should the trees be walnuts, because these trees are 

 grown about 40 feet apart After this is done the ridger should be run entirely 

 around the outside of the piece to be irrigated, so as to have as perfect a ridge 

 as possible on the outside. One man will ridge about 15 acres in a day. The 

 ridger should be built with a steel plate extending along the bottom on both 

 sides, bolted to the inside and projecting about 2 inches, so- as to take good hold 

 of the ground. Then with one horse attached to what is locally known as a 

 "jump scraper/' one side of the checks should be closed up, for the ridger in 

 making the cross ridges breaks down the first ridge at its intersection. These 

 repairs were at first made with a shovel, but the jump scraper, also called 

 locally the "horse shovel," closes up the gaps very quickly. The practice gen- 

 erally followed is to close up the high side of the checks if the land does not 

 cut by running water, but if it cuts, close up the lower side. 



After closing up the checks the ditches are plowed out and then the V-shaped 

 "crowder" is run twice through them. On lands inclined to cut it is advis- 

 able that they length of the rows to be irrigated should not be over 250 feet, but 

 in heavy land this distance can be , considerably increased, if necessary, without 

 danger of cutting the ridges bv too long a run of water. 



If the checks have been closed up on the low side of the ridge, it is better 

 to run the water to the ends of the ditch and water the last row first ; but if 

 the high side has been closed up, it is best to water first the row nearest the 

 gate or the main ditch, as the case may be, as in each instance dry earth will 

 thus be available, if necessary, to close up the checks. The water is run down 

 the, row to the end tree, and as soon as the last check is filled it is closed up, 

 and so on till all are filled and closed, when the water is turned down the next 

 row. 



To do good work it is usual to allow three men for every 50 inches of water, 

 but in our own practice we have had much better results by dividing up our 

 water and running from 35 to 40 inches to a ditch and allowing two men for 



