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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



soil rendering it lifeless and leaving it so that it will not retain moisture 

 long. Besides, the cost of ridging and extra labor in handling water in 

 checks for one season will nearly pay for the flume, by which one man can 

 do the irrigating. Two horses will furrow out 10 acres in half a day, and 

 a little hand labor at the flume will connect the furrows. In the check 

 system generally a disk is run first where the ridges are to be made, and 

 then the ridger is run with four horses; then jump scraper is run to stop 

 up one side of the blocks; then ditches must be made; thert from 2 to 3 men 

 are required to handle the water by shutting up the checks when filled. 

 Afterwards the ridges must be plowed down before the ground can be har- 

 rowed and got in condition to cultivate. At a glance one can see that it 

 costs fully three times as much to irrigate by the check system as by the 

 furrow system, and with the latter the soil acts more as it does after a rain. 



OVERHEAD IRRIGATION 



Although Californians have always been strongly impelled by 

 the desire to get irrigation water away from contact with the air 

 and into the soil as directly as possible, to escape losses by evapora- 

 tion and to maintain a loose soil-surface, sprinkling methods have 

 recently become matters of considerable expenditure. Such systems 

 were installed in the orange orchards of Robert Baird of Porter- 

 ville and R. D. Williams of Exeter. The former has overhead perfo- 

 rated pipes supported on redwood posts ; the latter has underground 

 pipes with a stand-pipe rising through the center of each fourth 

 tree and surmounted with a revolving sprinkler. The cost of in- 

 stallation at prices which prevailed before the war in each case was 

 about $150 per acrce. The desirability of such sprinkling methods 

 is still to be demonstrated. In both cases the water is forced into 

 the pipes by pumps. 



DEVELOPMENT AND STORAGE OF WATER 



It is, obviously, beyond the limitations of this work to attempt 

 an extended review of irrigation enterprises and practices. The 

 enterprises undertaken by capitalists, or by co-operation among 

 settlers, require the services of competent engineers. All these 

 matters are too great in extent and variety to be discussed in this 

 work. As, however, it has been the aim of the writer to aid the 

 inexperienced planter to help himself in small efforts, a little space 

 will be given to suggestions as how a planter may develop and 

 use such small water supply as may be derived from spring, small 

 creek or well, on his own land without employing an engineer. 



Running Lines for Irrigating Ditches. How far to go up a 

 creek in order to bring water out upon a given piece of land is a 

 question which frequently arises in individual practice. There is 

 also doubt as to how much fall should be given to the ditch. The 

 fall required by a ditch or canal depends upon the amount of water 

 which it is desired that it shall discharge, and upon the width and 

 depth with which it is intended that the water should flow. It may 

 also be dependent upon the character of the soil in which the ditch 

 is to be constructed, and upon the peculiarities of the water itself. 



