THE QUESTION BOX. 



The Question Box shall be an " open parliament " for the discussion of the practical, every-day questions that perplex the 

 irrigation farmers. Questions will be answered by those men of long experience among our readers who are glad to give of their 

 knowledge for the common good. Further answers are solicited from any reader whose experience differs from that published 

 here. The editors reserve all rights of control of the department. 



Crops for Young Orchards. A. D. T. Please inform us 

 new beginners what hoed crops may be grown at a profit in a 

 voung orchard. How about strawberries? May other roots than 

 potatoes be cultivated without harm to the trees? 



Almost any cultivated crop may be grown with 

 profit in the spaces between young fruit trees, so far 

 as the trees are concerned, if the ground is kept prop- 

 erly enriched, which it should be for the sake both 

 of making profitable the crop grown and keeping in- 

 tact, or augmenting, the stores of nutriment necessary 

 for the growth of the trees and their future harvests 

 of fruit. Strawberries answer the purpose admirably. 

 We know of no root crop that will harm the trees in the 

 least if that which is taken from the soil by the crop 

 is faithfully made good by manuring, fertilization 

 and cultivation. Don't make the mistake of supposing 

 that you can get paying returns of a series of any sort 

 of crops off a piece of ground, and at the same time 

 have it grow thrifty trees, finally loaded with big 

 apples, without giving the soil something out of which 

 to produce the desired results. This has been tried 

 often enough to dispense with necessity for further 

 experiment along that line. The form of inquiry in- 

 dicates that our correspondent is aware of the fact 

 that small grain should not be used as an interculture 

 in such case. Alfalfa is also undesirable. J. W. 

 GREGORY, Garden City, Kansas. 



Cultivation vs. Irrigation. T. C. V. Some farmers 

 claim that thorough cultivation, andtwo or three irrigations 

 during the season is better than more irrigation. (1) Is this 

 true of potatoes? (2) Of what kinds of fruits is it true? (3) 

 State approximate number of times for cultivation, and likewise 

 for irrigation in each case. (4) How late should deciduous fruits 

 be irrigated? and (5) how early in spring? 



(1) No, it is not; potatoes, as a rule, should be irri- 

 gated at least once a week until their maturity, then 

 no more. (2) Of no kinds. All fruits require irriga- 

 tion, especially during the hottest part of the summer. 

 (3) Cultivation ought to follow each irrigation as soon 

 as the ground is in a fit condition. Cultivation should 

 be once or twice a week. (4) Deciduous fruits should 

 be irrigated until they are well matured, and just be- 

 fore and during the ripening season; if the weather 

 is hot they require more thorough irrigation. Any in- 

 telligent farmer will soon learn when to irrigate, and 

 how long to keep it up each time. Every farmer 

 knows about when he would like to see it rain. In- 

 stead of watching the clouds and praying for it to rain, 

 if he is prepared to irrigate he can answer his own 

 prayer. N. G. BLALOCK, M. D., Washington. 



About Small Ditches. C T. N. and Others. What is 



the capacity of small ditches at different grades? Reference is 

 made to the farm laterals. What method of management of 

 ditches is most economical of labor to keep them in order and 

 distribute the water? 



A fall of one foot in a hundred feet is as much as is 

 usually needed, and will give a velocity of two or 

 three feet per second in farm furrows, depending 

 on how much smoothing is done with hoe or drag, and 



this is as fast as the water will run without washing. 

 Less fall gives less speed about in proportion. The 

 capacity in cubic feet per second is found by multi- 

 plying the water area in square reet by velocity in 

 feet per second. Main lateral along farm fence should 

 be made permanent and should be broken, for tak- 

 ing water out, at points only. Small laterals may be 

 torn away as fast as land is watered, beginning at the 

 farther end. In general, laterals are built up so that 

 the water is above ground. H. V. HINCKLEY, C. E. 

 A miner's inch is sufficient to irrigate an acre of 

 arid land well, and of semi-arid land two acres or 

 more. The lateral should be run on the highest 

 ground on the farm, or, if a ridge or "hog back" runs 

 through the farm, the head ditch should run on it and 

 then irrigate both ways from it. The best and most 

 economical way to get water out of this head ditch is 

 to make boxes of 1% inch lumber, four inches square 

 inside and four feet long, with slide gate in one end. 

 Place this box in the bank of the ditch so that the 

 open end of the box is on a level with the bottom of 

 the ditch, cover the box, pounding the dirt around the 

 box so that the water will not cut through along side 

 of box. Having ground prepared nd ditches run, 

 you raise the little gate and allow just as much water 

 to escape as you want. These boxes should be placed 

 about one to two rods apart. Sow blue grass along 

 the bank of your ditch over these boxes and you will 

 soon have a beautiful sod, which will not break. I 

 have 400 acres prepared this way and one man, who 

 boards himself, irrigates the entire 400 acres and does 

 it well for $1.00 per day. This land is nearly all in 

 orchard, and all in fruit trees, vegetables and meadow. 

 I irrigate from one to three times per week, accord- 

 ing to the season. Two hundred to four hundred yards 

 is as long as irrigation ditches should be made. Make 

 other head ditches and boxes in the first place. An- 

 other way is to build a flume for the bead ditch and 

 simply bore auger holes every rod or two, instead of 

 the small boxes. Dr. N. G. BLALOCK. 



Irrigation Literature. W. H. F What are the latest 

 and best engineering works on irrigation for the use of engineers? 



The Eleventh Annual Report of the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey devotes forty-four pages to an index oi 

 Irrigation Literature. See part II. (or Second Annual 

 Irrigation Report), pages 345 to 388. See also sundry 

 articles in THE IRRIGATIO\AGE for 1894, and bulletins 

 Number 22 and 27 of the State Agricultural College, 

 Ft. Collins, Colo., on water duty and measurement. 

 H. V. HINCKLEY. 



Herbert M. Wilson's " Irrigation Manual, 1 ' pub- 

 lished by John Wiley & Sons, New York City; P. J. 

 Flynn's " Hyraulics " for sale by Mrs. P. J. Flynn, 

 Los Angeles, California, and Butler's " Manual " 

 treating of the artesian well supply of South Dakota, 

 fo r sale, by C. D. White of Huron, may also be 

 mentioned. 



