HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



MORE CULTIVATION AND LESS WATER. 



IN the care of an irrigated orchard it is a very easy 

 matter to use too much water. Experience in Cali- 

 fornia and elsewhere has shown that the average irri- 

 gator is prone to the excessive use of water in his 

 orchard. For this reason there has grown up the be- 

 lief in some quarters that irrigated fruit is inferior in 

 quality to that produced without the aid of artificial 

 watering. But further experience by careful growers 

 has shown conclusively that lack of quality in fruit 

 does not come from artificial watering, but from too 

 much water. 



Particularly is this shown beyond question in the 

 prune orchard of some parts of California. The 

 prune when not grown under the influence of too 

 much moisture will yield one pound of cured fruit 

 for about two pounds or less of fruit as it comes from 

 the tree. But if irrigated excessively it often re- 

 quires three pounds or more to make one pound of 

 cured fruit of an inferior quality. On the contrary, 

 if irrigated just enough to keep the tree in vigorous 

 growth and to mature a heavy load of fruit, it is found 

 that not only is the quality of the fruit equal, but the 

 yield of cured fruit very much greater. It is simply 

 a question of using a proper amount of irrigating 

 water not an excess of it. It is also found by the 

 daily practical experience of orange growers and 

 others in Florida and California that frequent 

 and shallow cultivation of the surface soil so con- 

 serves the moisture that a very much smaller quan- 

 tity of irrigating water or rainfall will suffice to ma- 

 ture a crop of fruit, than if the soil has not been thus 

 carefully and scientifically prepared. By thus culti- 

 vating the soil, as soon after irrigation as the ground 

 reaches a fit conditon, and before it becomes hard 

 and lumpy, the moisture may be retained very much 

 longer than if not so cultivated, or if the surface be 

 allowed to become and remain uneven and cloddy. 



A knowledge of these facts leads the best culti- 

 vators at Riverside and other orange growing centers, 

 not only to cultivate carefully after each irrigation, 

 but also to pass a roller or smoother over the orchard 

 with a view to making the group as even as possible, 

 and wholly free from clods and lumps. Shallow cul- 

 tivation with fine toothed implements should be done 

 probably as often as every ten days between irri- 

 gations, in which case, it will be found, if properly 

 done, that the irrigations may be made less frequent. 

 The top soil must, however, be well pulverized, and 

 ai6 



if it be as fine and dry as flour no harm will be done. 

 Indeed, it is all the better as a mulch, for little or no 

 evaporation can take place through this non-convec- 

 tive covering of dust. All this is easily explained. 

 Evaporation takes place from the surface of the 

 ground only after the moisture is brought up from 

 below by the action of capillary attraction. The 

 capillary tubes which make this action possible are 

 formed by the relative positions which the coarser 

 particles of earth assume, but which frequent culti- 

 vation and pulverizing break up and destroy. Thus 

 the moisture that is placed about the trees by irriga- 

 tion or otherwise is mostly preserved in the ground, 

 except such as is taken up by the roots and transpired 

 into the air through the leaves. It must be evident 

 to all that by cutting off evaporation wholly or largely 

 by means of a " mulch blanket ''of fine, dry earth 

 made by careful and frequent cultivation with ap- 

 proved implements, the quantity of water required for 

 the proper growth and maturing of a crop may be 

 very much lessened. 



These suggestions have a cash value to all fruit 

 growers, whether in the arid region or not. If not in 

 the arid region fruit growers are nevertheless subject 

 to periodical drouths which, by pursuing the course 

 here prescribed, may be rendered partially or wholly 

 nugatory, and agood^crop produced in spite of them. 

 Advanced fruit growers in many parts of the country 

 know this by experience, and need no arguments to 

 convince them. To fruit growers in irrigable dis- 

 tricts the system of cultivation here suggested will save 

 immediate cash outlays when it comes time for the 

 monthly collection of water bills. To all fruit 

 growers it will, if adhered to, be beneficial and put 

 money into their pockets through larger crops of 

 better fruit which their trees will produce under such 

 careful and intelligent tillage as is here outlined.' 



PECAN CULTURE. 



Perhaps the most cosmopolitan of the nut trees 

 largely planted for profit is the pecan. It grows 

 from Texas to Illinois, and from Florida to Puget 

 sound. Hundreds of acres are found growing wild 

 in Texas and some other States, and larger incomes 

 are frequently drawn from these native pecan groves 

 than from the cattle ranches or surrounding culti- 

 vated farms. The tree being a species of hickory, 

 the timber is valuable as well as the nut, and brings a 

 high price for certain purposes. 



