HOW TO IRRIGATE. 



BY JAS. G. KYLE, OF RIVERSIDE, CAL. 



Bead at the Farmers' Institute at Ferris, Cal. 



Local conditions determine so many points in the skillful dis- 

 tribution of water that it seems not altogether wise to ask a non- 

 resident to talk to you on the subject. 



The first point is how much water can you depend on having to 

 use during May, June and July for deciduous fruit. If you can have 

 thirty inches a day of twenty-four hours for two days out of every 

 thirty days, I think you can organize your land and flumes so as to do 

 justice to twenty acres. This is double the amount of land for the 

 same amount of water customary at Riverside. 



How to do it? First grade carefully as soon as possible after the 

 first rain in autumn. After the next rain plow deeply across the line 

 of irrigation, put in a good flume on the proper side, or still better on 

 two sides, so that you may be able to cross-irrigate. If you start a 

 young orchard you will not need all your water for several years; but 

 you can always sell it to some neighbor who started his orchard 

 during the time when hopes ran high and water ran low. I like the 

 plan of having the holes dug before beginning to plant. Better let 

 the water have a good start at filling the holes. Plant in water, and 

 let each planter roll up his sleeves above the elbow and two men 

 shovel in earth. The planter should spread the roots so as to give 

 them a natural position. Plant across ten or fifteen rows, as you 

 may have water, and it will keep ahead of you. Cover in your trees 

 with dry earth, and straighten the inclined before the ground settles. 

 In about two weeks you are ready for the first irrigation. Then run 

 a good deep furrow on each side of the row. Start the water in only 

 one furrow. When the water has got as far as two feet beyond the 

 first tree block the furrow, and then open across to the other furrow 

 from one to two feet above. Let the water run down the second 

 furrow a little past the second tree. Block as before; and so down 

 the line. You will in this way put water on three sides of your tree, 

 and by reversing the starting furrows you will have every time you 

 irrigate a basin system which is altogether the most economical of 

 water. The second year run two furrows on each side of the tree, 

 and repeat the blocking and shifting of water from one furrow to the 



