APPLICATION OF WATER ON HILLSIDES 173 



soak in, or else loosen the ground about the trees with a spade and carry the 

 ditch through this loosened ground. I block out my ditches so that I can get 

 my stream through the last tree in about sixteen hours. Where the water has 

 not reached the end of some of the ditches, I turn the water into it from a 

 stream that is flush, and by keeping a man with a! hoe constantly with the water, 

 I manage to get it over the field at about 4 p. m. I wet about 350 trees in a 

 block on hillsides; on a flat I wet less, using more water in each stream, and 

 changing it about every twelve hours instead of every twenty-four hours. My 

 trees grow about 130 to an acre. 



Systematic Distribution of Water on Hillsides. The Common 

 method of carrying water in pipes to the various high points of several 

 slopes or "irrigated faces" from which it can be admitted to large fur- 

 rows crossing or descending those faces is open to some difficulties and 

 disarrangements. P. W. Butler, of Penryn, has had in successful opera- 

 tion for several years a system of zigzag ditches for carrying and dis- 

 tributing and for catching outflow and redistributing on a lower face. 

 This is also a system which makes ditches and furrows but once a year, 

 and dispenses with summer cultivation. Mr. Butler's account, as illus- 

 trated by the accompanying diagram, is as follows : 



The amount of water generally used in this section for the irrigation of 

 deciduous fruit trees is 1 inch to 5 acres of orchard (miner's inch under 6-inch 

 pressure), and is applied to each row of trees by one stream of water of sufficient 

 quantity to just reach the end of the row. Much of the water is thus 

 wasted because of inability to properly adjust its distribution. It is usually 

 run twenty-four hours, then changed to other parts of the orchard until 

 the whole is covered, which takes about three weeks' time, when the process 

 is repeated, continuing throughout the summer, or from May 1 until October 

 1. There is no cultivation in the meantime, and at each irrigation the water 

 is run in the same ditches. This system is followed in nearly all the 

 orchards of Penryn and vicinity, some on quite steep hillsides, which suffer 

 when the water is thus applied. I have never liked this method, and for 

 many years have used a different system in irrigating all orchards over 

 which I have had control. In my home orchard I have a reservoir on the 

 highest land, from which water can be conveyed as desired to every part. 

 My ditches are run on a grade with a fall from 2 to 3 inches to the rod and 

 from 5 to 8 feet apart. At each irrigation the water is run about thirty-six 

 hours before changing. The round of the orchard is made in ten to four- 

 teen days. None of my small ditches exceeds 400 feet in length. When I 

 begin to irrigate a section I turn on from the reservoir water sufficient to 

 cover the section in a few hours, then lessen it until it just reaches the end 

 of each row, but see that it reaches the end of each row if a little surplus 

 passes over. This surplus I take up in a main ditch, to be again used on 

 lower ground. This is continued until the lowest part of the orchard is 

 reached, and very little water is ever wasted. By running on a grade that 

 is so nearly level the water is applied uniformly, even on the driest parts of 

 the hill slopes. I run the main distributing ditches in a zigzag manner, tak- 

 ing water from these ditches to cover the lower sections. I formerly used 

 pipes to lead the water down the steepest grades, but this system I have 

 abandoned and now use open zigzag ditches for mains. From the main 

 zigzag ditches I do not take the water at the turning point, as there is more 

 liability of breakage than if taken when running straight, or at whatever 

 point is necessary to keep the distributing ditches on an average of 8 feet 

 apart. The length of the zigzag ditches varies according to the slone of the 

 hillside. When steep, the ditch, before turning, must be of greater length 

 than where the ground is more level. (See diagram.) I use no gates, but 

 bush the openings with coarse swale hay. I also bush the turning points of 

 ditches as they are in permanent use throughout the season, and after the 

 first few days' use require but little care to keep them in order. These 



