WINTER IRRIGATION OF ORCHARDS. 



57 



been proven that even the trunks of the trees, and 

 probably the branches, actually increase in girth 

 during the winter months. It is therefore clear that 

 the tree is in active growth during a great part of the 

 winter and is laying up a store of vitality for the 

 coming summer. If the tree during that period 

 suffers from drouth its vital energy is weakened. 



Secondly, the people here have been told that it is 

 not customary to irrigate orchards in California dur- 

 ing the winter. They, however, have not taken into 

 account that heavy rains fall in winter over the 

 greater part of the Pacific coast, whereas in the 

 region of the Rocky Mountains the winter months are 

 our dry season. Moreover, if we look at those coun- 

 tries where fruit grows to the greatest perfection 

 without irrigation, we shall see that they have the 

 principal rainfall during the winter months. I need 

 only point to the Santa Clara Valley in California 

 and the south of France in Europe, where nature 

 gives us a valuable lesson in the application of water 

 to fruit trees. 



In the Nesika Valley where I reside, I know of two 

 large peach orchards, both on similar land and within 

 a quarter of a mile of one another. One was not 

 irrigated during the winter, while the other received 

 three or four copious irrigations. The peach blos- 

 soms opened a few days later on the irrigated 

 orchard, while the fruit ripened at least a week ahead 

 of the other. I am inclined to think that the moisture 

 of the soil tended to keep the air around the trees 

 cool, and so retarded the blossoms, but when the fruit 

 on the irrigated trees once started, it rapidly over- 

 took that on the others, which, owing to lack of mois- 

 ture during the winter, were deficient in vitality, 

 whereas the irrigated trees were in a condition to 

 devote all their energy to the development of the 

 fruit. 



The experiment has also been made here of irri- 

 gating peach trees only twice a year, viz., once in 

 November and again in March. They however 

 failed to produce a single basket of first-class 

 marketable fruit; all were small and stunted, and by 

 July the trees began to shed their leaves and showed 

 unmistakeable signs of giving up the ghost. Never- 

 theless, these trees received constant eultivation and 

 every care so far as pruning and the thinning of the 

 fruit were concerned. On the other hand, the finest 

 and earliest peaches were raised on those orchards 

 which received winter irrigation and a copious 

 supply of water every eight or ten days from the 

 time the fruit set until it was gathered. 



In these parts it has also been customary to hill up 

 the vines in November and to apply no water during 

 the winter. It is not the cold which is feared, so 

 much as the dry winds in the early months of the 

 year, and if the trunk of the vine be not protected, it 

 is apt to crack and the buds to winter-kill. A gentle- 

 man in the valley, who has made the experiment for 

 two years, assures me that if the vines are irrigated 

 during the winter, they go through with perfect safety 

 and without the necessity of any hilling up. It would 

 certainly seem that there is as good reason for irri- 

 gating vines in winter as there is for irrigating fruit 

 trees. 



Finally, there is another good reason why orchards 

 and vineyards should be irrigated in winter. The 

 work can be done when the farmer is not otherwise 

 busy and when the water is invariably plentiful. 

 Water, which would otherwise be wasted, is saved 

 by thoroughly working the ground down to a good 

 depth, and, should there be a short supply of water 

 during the summer, the trees are able, by means of 



capillary attraction, to draw upon this reserve of 

 water which was stored up during the winter. 



TWO COLORADO ARGUMENTS. 



Five years' observation and experience in Califor- 

 nia, where irrigation is reduced to a science, has re- 

 vealed facts that would add great value to the system 

 practiced on the great plains east of the mountains 

 and which will reduce the cost of reservoirs probably 

 one-half and add much to their safety. Thus argues 

 W. Hildreth in Field and Farm. For the last ten 

 years winter irrigation has been gaining favor for the 

 following reasons: First, water that would run to 

 waste in winter is saved by thoroughly soaking the 

 ground down deep. Secondly, there is more time to 

 devote to it in winter. In this Colorado has the ad- 

 vantage of the Californians, as our subsoil will hold 

 the water better, where it would be used in the spring 

 by capillary attraction as needed. 



Nearly the whole winter could be utilized in getting 

 water into deep furrows on plowed land and into 

 pools made about fruit trees in the fall before freez- 

 ing. If the water froze in the furrow so much the 

 better, as it would thaw and seep into the ground in 

 the spring. The main cause of damage by drouth in 

 this country is that we get little or no snow or rain in 

 the winter, and what little rain comes in the spring 

 only wets the surface a few inches down, then when 

 the warm drying winds come it soon evaporates and 

 crops are stunted or ruined entirely. If a system of 

 reservoirs were established the farmers in a few years 

 would see the utility of winter irrigation and there 

 would be a pressing demand for all of the water as 

 fast as it came from the mountains, so that much 

 smaller reservoirs would do, saving first expense of 

 building, cover less ground and add much to their 

 safety. 



The safety of all artificial water storage depends 

 mostly on the plan of getting rid of the waste water. 

 The dams and waste weirs should be planned by ex- 

 perienced engineers and not by inexperienced favor- 

 ites, and the construction should be under the super- 

 vision of thorough men. Surface irrigation in hot 

 drying weather is soon lost by evaporation, to say 

 nothing of the baking or inconvenience of wetting 

 growing crops. Wet the ground in winter when there 

 is nothing in the way and time and water are plenty 

 and evaporation less. That would get a great deal 

 of water into the ground where it would do good, that 

 would otherwise evaporate from the surface of large 

 reservoirs if held until needed for growing crops in 

 summer. 



There is no loafing or shirking about a tree, says a 

 writer in the Denver Times. It simply does its best, 

 and while this process is being energetically pro- 

 ceeded with it is making wood growth preparatory for 

 the crop another year. When the crop is gathered 

 the very process is a weakening one to the trees, and 

 in order to overcome this weakening process then is 

 the time to use a stimulant. By irrigation and culti- 

 vation -and the first is nearly useless without the 

 last the fruit buds are developed, made strong, and 

 if a little cold or frost comes next spring out of sea- 

 son they possess the vigor to resist it, and thus the 

 orchardist will derive all the benefit of irrigation. 

 We have noticed that dry orchards of Colorado are 

 less certain to bear fruit year by year just because 

 there is no way to apply moisture at the very time 

 the buds are forming, which is the most important 

 time of all. If an orchard fails to bear, the cause 

 may usually be traced to this lack of moisture and 

 irrigation. 



