PERMANENT IRRIGATION FURROWS \Jf 



water by the year, and is entitled to this amount of continuous flow. 

 He has to use it or neglect it as it flows, and cannot get more at one 

 time by not using it at another. For this reason he has not the mo- 

 tive for close observation which prevails under other conditions, 

 and to escape the cost of summer cultivation and fresh furrowing 

 out he has recourse to frequent flows in the old furrows. The fol- 

 lowing interesting account of the prevailing method was prepared 

 by Mr. W. R. Fountain, of Newcastle : 



Water is supplied almost exclusively by one company, which has met 

 requirements up to date, and seems fixed to supply in excess of demand. It 

 is supplied by the miner's inch; price $45 per inch per season for a constant 

 supply. The inch is measured under 6-inch pressure. 



Beginning May 1st, five months is called the irrigating season, but the 

 purchaser can have the water twelve months per annum if he wants it. The 

 water company collects monthly. The purchaser cannot start the season 

 with little and increase at pleasure, except upon payment for the full season 

 on the basis of the largest amount used at any time. 



With this constant supply we use it constantly, piping to high points and 

 moving it from place to place. When no fruit is ripening it is attempted to 

 water a block of trees in twenty-four hours. The water is not checked back, 

 but is run in ditches, mostly in one, but occasionally in two, along each row 

 of trees or vines. When a variety of fruit is ripening more water is given 

 the trees, while after a variety is picked and before any other is nearly ripe 

 the effort is made to water each tree every ten or twelve days. Level land 

 and low spots stand a good chance, as a rule, to get too much water, and a 

 larger stream is used per row to force the water through quickly. Then 

 it is taken off in a shorter time than it would be where the trees are on a 

 side-hill and have a good drainage. 



About 1 inch for each 8 acres is generally used. This is for deciduous 

 fruits. The citrus fruits and berries require watering about once a week; 

 if there is good drainage they would prosper if watered every three days'. 

 In such ground I have not heard of their getting either too much water or 

 too much fertilizer. The general practice is to plow, cross plow, and then 

 after each rain cultivate, with no cultivation whatever after beginning the 

 use of water. I think an occasional cultivation after watering would help. 



There is a tendency for the ditches to become packed after water has 

 been flowing through them for some time, in which case but little water 

 soaks into the ground. When this occurs I dig a pot hole in the ditch to 

 allow the water to 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 furrows crossing or descending those faces is open to some 

 difficulties and disarrangements. P. W. Butler, of Penryn, had in 

 successful operation for several years a system of zigzag ditches for 

 carrying and distributing and for catching outflow and redistrib- 

 uting on a lower face. This is also a system which makes ditches 

 and furrows but once a year, and dispenses with summer cultivation. 



