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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Mr. Butler's account, as illustrated 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 sufficfent 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 



Zigzag ditches 



Large furrow system on hillside with zigzag ditches for distribution, 

 catchment, and redistribution. 



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 exceed 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 the 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- 



