180 CALIFORNIA FRUITS I HOW TO GROW THEM 



mean sources. This can be done by clearing out and opening up hill- 

 side springs, and often by tunneling into the hillside to intercept sub- 

 terranean water-flows, or by pumping from a well. Even a small 

 spring, yielding but two quarts per second, would be sufficient to 

 irrigate several acres in fruit trees. To derive the greatest benefit from 

 small springs, however, a reservoir is necessary, in which the flow of 

 twelve to twenty-four hours, or even a longer period, can be accumu- 

 lated, and then discharged as required. It is by using water in driblets 

 that many springs are wasted. A spring supplying even one and a half 

 inches of water would be wholly swallowed up by a thirsty soil within 

 two hundred feet of its source, when, by arresting the flow and accumu- 

 lating it in a reservoir and discharging at intervals in a volume four 

 times as large, it would more than cover eight times the surface. A 

 spring flowing two quarts per second will discharge forty-three thou- 

 sand two hundred gallons in twenty-four hours. This would require 

 a reservoir forty by twenty feet, and seven feet deep, or double that 

 width if the depth is decreased one-half. The shallower it can be 

 made the better, for many reasons, but especially on account of the 

 temperature of the water. That of springs is generally too low in 

 summer for immediate use, and its value is greatly enchanced by being 

 raised to an equal or greater temperature than that of the air. This 

 is quickly done by exposure in a shallow pond. A reservoir can be 

 constructed entirely in the ground where the slope will admit of it, 

 and by lining the bottom and sides with clay well puddled, will answer 

 for most purposes. Some are built of adobe, backed with earth and 

 plastered on the inner side with hydraulic cement. Concrete of lime, 

 sand, and broken stone, is however, the best material, where lime can 

 be readily obtained, and any person with ordinary mechanical skill can 

 construct them. The following hints on a dirt reservoir may be 

 suggestive : 



A reservoir should be built on the highest part of the tract sought to be irri- 

 gated by scraping the earth from the outside and from such a large area as not 

 to affect the utility of the land from which it is taken. With a levee all around 

 5 feet high, 5 feet of water could be carried safely. The slopes ought to be 

 two to one on the inside. A reservoir 20 feet square and 4 feet deep would hold 

 12,000 gallons. With the slopes as 'above the reservoir should be measured two 

 feet from the bottom, or half way up the 4 feet of water ; consequently to lay out 

 a reservoir to hold 12,000 srallons, put the stakes 12 feet square and build. For 

 any other size one take 8 feet off the same as this : A reservoir 25 feet square 

 will hold 18,750 gallons and would be 17 feet square at the bottom; one 30 feet 

 square would hold 27,000 gallons and would be 22 feet at the bottom ; one 35 

 feet square 27 at the bottom will hold 36,000 ' gallons ; one 40 feet square 32 

 on the bottom will hold 48,000 gallons. This spread upon the surface of an 

 acre would be a little more than 1^4 inches 'of rainfall. 



Almost any loam or soil will hold water with a little puddling. The cheapest 

 way to puddle is to build a pen the size of the intended reservoir, including 

 at least a portion of that to be under the embankment, wet it very wet, put some 

 hogs in the pen and Iceep feeding them barley, a little at a time, so as to make 

 them not only walk around, but root for the barley. A half sack of barley fed 

 to eight or ten hungry hogs in half a day will make a good puddle. If it did 

 not work satisfactorily, the water could be taken off and the bottom covered 

 about an inch deep with coarse sand' mixed one part to five with Portland cement, 

 put in dry, and let it be covered slowly. A barrel of cement may be counted at 

 about 4 cubic feet and ' with the mixture above would cover the first-named 



