194 THE IRRIGA TION A GE, 



Florida the best system of irrigating orange groves consists in spraying 

 or creating an artificial rainfall by means of force pumps and hose 

 stretched through the orchards. Some California fruit growers report 

 the best, neatest and most satisfactory method of irrigating trees is by the 

 sub irrigation or underground plan. This consists in laying pipes on 

 the sub-surface strata and forcing the water through small openings 

 made just under the trees, to percolate through the soil and feed the roots 

 without wetting the surface. In Utah and the Rocky Mountain states the 

 method generally adopted consists in runnning the water from distribu- 

 tion laterals, through small rills or furrows to a waste ditch thus caus- 

 ing the plowed soil to absorb and distribute the moisture from the sur- 

 face furrows or ditches. Some farmers and fruit growers conduct the 

 water to the land to be irrigated in wooden flumes or square boxes and 

 allow it to flow out from holes on either side, thereby flooding the entire 

 area as if from a sudden downpour of rain. The Mexicans dig basins 

 round fruit trees and fill with water, leaving it to gradually percolate to 

 the roots and not waste in the vacant spots. 



All grains, grasses, vegetables and fruits grow as well under irriga- 

 tion as in the rainbelt sections, where soil and climate are similar. In 

 western Colorado where a few years ago nothing but venomous reptiles 

 existed, small fruit growers sell over one thousand dollars worth of straw- 

 berries and other fruits annually from an acre. Utah gardeners claim 

 from five hundred to fifteen hundred yearly as the product of an acre 

 planted to onions, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, melons or celery while 

 gooseberries and strawberries yield as high as eighteen hundred dol- 

 lars an acre. The citrus fruits of California pay more handsome profits 

 than delicious fruits or vegetables in the inter-mountain country, due 

 largely to climatic conditions and systematic irrigation. Fifteen years 

 ago the great orange groves of southern California were almost unknown 

 and the shipments were small, because the acieage was limited. By 

 modern irrigation the deserts have been converted into gardens of para- 

 dise and the fruit shipments are counted by the number of trainloads, 

 where formerly the reports were given in boxes packed. The results of 

 irrigation in the semi-tropic valleys cannot even be estimated in the mil- 

 lions of dollars. 



Alfalfa, a species of California clover, and the most wonderful for- 

 age plant of the world, is one of the most prolific products under irriga- 

 tion, producing two crops in the highest cultivated valleys, and six to 

 eight crops in the lower and semi-tropical climes. This plant withstands 

 drouth and cold to a remarkable extent, yet will receive and digest al- 

 most all the water even the extreme irrigationist desires to give. The 

 long tap root extends several feet deep and draws food and moisture 

 from the surface and subsoil keeping green almost throughout the entire 

 year in the coldest climate. With irrigation as a feeder this p^ant sup- 

 plies the farmers with food for horses, cattle sheep, swine, poultry and 

 bees, when all other plants fail to return the seed invested. If a farmer 



