250 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



thing as lower rows farther apart with the soil thor- 

 oughly stirred between after each irrigation. The 

 amount of produce the Chinaman got from an acre 

 of ground, as well as the quality of it, was a grand 

 surprise to the American whose garden had more 

 weeds than anything else, and was as hard as the 

 floor of a brickyard unless irrrigated every few days. 

 Some contented themselves with saying that there is no 

 use in trying to compete with the Chinaman because 

 he can work so cheap ; others said that gardening was 

 too small potato business for them anyhow, beneath 

 the dignity of great rancheros. So that in this partic- 

 ular line the Chinese and Italian gardeners had few 

 imitators. But the men who were trying to raise fruit 

 on a large scale, especially in the south, began grad- 

 ually to open their eyes and imitate the methods of 

 the men who came from the oldest irrigating countries 

 of the world. More care was taken to make the 

 streams even in size and velocity and there was less 

 cutting and tearing of the soil, less washing new sand 

 bars here and making new channels there. Cultiva 

 tion was quickly adopted instead of drenching the 

 soil again with more water, and it was not many years 

 before the American had carried cultivation far 

 beyond where the Chinaman had thought of carry- 

 ing it. 



The Chinaman and Italian apparently thought that 

 when the ground was once loosened it needed no more 

 stirring until it was wet again. This is the common im- 

 pression even now among most of the white cultivators 

 who have not studied the oubject carefully. They 

 think the word cultivate is derived from cultivator, to 

 cultivate being to drag a machine called a cultivator 

 over the ground. One application complies with the 

 demands of derivation. One scrape of the top soil is 

 all that many of them ever think of. Experience has 

 shown that that one scrape is very good, but it has also 

 shown that several more are very much better. No 

 matter how thoroughly the soil maybe pulverized, or 

 how deep it may be done, from the very day it is allowed 

 to rest and settle it begins to lose the power of retain- 

 ing moisture. If stirred every few days, even though 

 at each stirring new moist earth is brought to the 

 immediate surface to be dried out, it retains moisture 

 better than if reliance is placed on one stirring. It is 

 thought by many that it absorbs moisture from the 

 air. It is not necessary to settle this point. The fact 

 is that if the soil be constantly stirred to a depth of 

 four or five inches it will retainjabout all the moisture 

 that capillary attraction will hold in that soil until the 

 roots of the trees or vines extract it. And it matters 

 not how hot a sun or dry an air may be over it dur- 

 ing all that time. I have seen ground in November 

 on which not a drop of water had fallen since April, 



that five inches below the surface was moist enough 

 to pack into a ball in the hand and moist enough for 

 any kind of vegetation. And this where it was sixty 

 feet to water beneath and with the sun beating on 

 the ground for six months with scarcely a day's in- 

 termission. But this was on ground bare of vegeta- 

 tion. Had it contained trees a few years old with 

 roots trained outward as they should be into the rich 

 warm top soil all the moisture would have been gone 

 in six weeks. And old trees in full bearing will often 

 take it out completely in four weeks. 



More of the great success attained by the skillful 

 irrigators of Southern California is due to their thor- 

 ough cultivation than to any other one point. It is 

 certain that almost in exact proportion to their pro- 

 gress in pulverizing the top soil and keeping it pul- 

 verized they have produced better fruit and more of 

 it with less water, less work and less worry. In some 

 of the settlements you may now ride for miles in the 

 summer without seeing a weed or even a spear of 

 grass in the orchards. The top soil to the depth of 

 four or five inches is kept like meal. In some places 

 the cultivator hardly ever rests, but is started cross- 

 wise as soon as it has finished the field lengthwise 

 and vice versa. The plow is not used because it runs 

 too deep. In the best orchards the roots are pur- 

 posely trained high and outward so as to be where the 

 soil is warm and easily aerated. The cultivator used is 

 generally some variety of disk cultivator or clod cut- 

 ter. But the variety is not so important as its use. 

 Mashing the clods with a big drag or plank is all very 

 well if the ground is .again broken up with the cul- 

 tivator. But few things are more stupid for many 

 soils than leaving the top of the ground smooth after 

 the drag has gone over it. Many do this imagining 

 they have discovered something new. It is now cer- 

 tain that the looser the top soil the more it acts as a 

 mulch. Everything that packs or settles it in the 

 least makes it lose to some extent, although it may 

 be small, its power of retaining moisture. 



It is now certain that cultivation produces much of 

 its effects by aereating the ground. The soil must 

 have air and the best results are impossible without 

 it. Worse than this. Fairly good results are impos- 

 sible without it unless on soils so open as to be 

 naturally warm and well drained and so open as to 

 admit air, hence what in tillage of the soil under a 

 good rainfall is an undoubted advantage, becomes 

 with irrigation a necessity. It is probably a necessity 

 for the best results under a good rainfall, but as to its 

 office in irrigation there is now no room for doubt. 



[This series of papers on the "Art of Irrigation " was begun in 

 the January number, and will be continued for several months to 

 come. EDITOR.] 



