HOW MUCH WATER TO USE 159 



(5) The claim that irrigated fruit is inferior for drying has the 

 same foundation as the preceding claims and is just as clearly based 

 upon misapprehension. Watery fruit is obviously inferior for drying, 

 but such fruit is the fault of the irrigator, not of irrigation. One 

 of the plainest deductions from experience is that small, tough fruit 

 makes unprofitable dried fruit, and that the best development of the 

 fruit is essential to the best results from drying. Many comparative 

 weighings have shown that the greatest yield in dried form has been 

 secured from trees which have had water enough to produce good, 

 large fruit. Even to bear fruit for drying, then, the tree must have 

 moisture enough to develop size and quality. If lacking moisture, 

 the tree serves its own purpose in developing pit and skin and re- 

 duces the pulp, in which lie the desirability and value of dried fruits. 



Of course the water should be applied at proper times, in proper 

 amount, and in a proper way. 



HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD BE USED? 



This is by its very nature an elusive question and any attempt to 

 answer it by a definite prescription is more apt to produce folly than 

 wisdom. For as it appears that whether irrigation is at all needed 

 or not depends upon several conditions which must be ascertained 

 in each place, so the amount of water, which is really an expression 

 of the degree of that need, depends also upon local conditions of 

 rainfall, of soil depth and retentiveness, of rate of waste by evapora- 

 tion, of the particular thirst of each irrigated crop, etc. The result 

 secured by the use of water is really the ultimate measure of the 

 duty of water in each instance. In the case of fruit trees and vines, 

 then, whatever amount of water secures thrifty and adequate wood 

 growth and strong, good-colored foliage, but not excessive nor rank 

 growth ; and abundance of good-sized and rich, but not monstrous 

 and watery fruit, is the proper amount for that place and that prod- 

 uct, and to the ascertainment of that amount by local experience 

 of himself and others, the grower should employ his most earnest 

 thought and his keenest insight. 



During many years the writer has continually renewed his data 

 of the irrigation practice of California fruit growers by systematic 

 inquiry and has prepared four bulletins* which have been published 

 by the Irrigation Investigations of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



A study of local practice shows that infinite variety exists and in 

 the nature of the case must exist, and that any definite prescription 

 of the duty of water under various conditions is impossible. In some 

 cases the amount of water at each irrigation must be small, and 

 applications frequent because the soils are shallow, overlying bed- 

 rock, and a small amount saturates them. In other places an acre- 

 foot of water is readily absorbed and retained in the deep soil. The 



*Farmers' Bulletin No. 116, "Irrigation in Fruit Growing'; Farmers' Bulletin No. 138, 

 "Irrigation in Garden and Field"; Bulletin of Experiment Stations No. 108, "Irrigation 

 Practice Among Fruit Growers of the Pacific Coast"; annual report of irrigation and 

 drainage investigations, 1904. "Relation of Irrigation to Yield. Size, Quality, and Com- 

 mercial Suitability of Fruits." 



