THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



391 



minute hair appendages that take up the 

 tree's nutriment. 



This makes pretty severe root pruning. 

 How considerable the injury, considering 

 the great mass of roots from which such 

 trees gain their support and the quick re- 

 cuperation after injury, this will occasion, 

 I can yet form no opinion of any value. 

 But certainly there will be a lot of root 

 growth to be made up. and in the time a 

 lot of little mouths lacking to take up the 

 food of the tree. But there may be cases 

 where the advantage to remaining roots 

 may more than make up for this loss. In 

 any event, it would be greatly better not 

 only if this root pruning, but all the ex- 

 pense connected with the deep plowing, 

 did not need to be. And this brings me 

 to the second part of my subject. 



Can the necessity for it be avoided by 

 guarding against the formation of 'this ob- 

 structing layer while orchards are young? 

 I am quite of the opinion that it may. 

 But my experience has been with orchards 

 under ten yeirs old and I have learned 

 that we are frequently obliged to revise 

 opinions very confidently held, as our ac- 

 tual experience extends under new condi- 

 tions, and this opinion may be quite 

 wrong. If the hard layer is occasioned by 

 repeated drying out after irrigations, if 

 but a portion of that stratum should be 

 thoroughly broken up once or twice a year 

 before becoming hard, the balance of it, I 

 think, can be kept from hardening by 

 careful irrigation. This opinion is based 

 on a good many yrars experience in all 

 soils from the sandy loam to stiff adobe, 

 without any of this troublesome layer; yet 

 you will allow me td icfer to this experi- 

 ence in illustrating not in any dogmatic- 

 al spirit, for every year more and more I 

 find that different men will accomplish the 

 same desired results best, by quite differ- 

 ent means. Once a year we thoroughly 

 break up the surface with a walking plow, 

 as deep as we can without permanent in- 

 jury to the root system, from six to nine 

 inches. In our earlier planted orchard 

 where we did not commence with specially 



deep plowing we have trouble with ,the 

 routs even at six inches. In our later 

 planting on deep plowing, repeated each 

 season, we can keep a depth of seven to 

 nine inches easily. With this annual 

 plowing we have no trouble in getting the 

 water into the ground during the irrigat- 

 ing season. We aim to make the irriga- 

 tion most thorough every time. As aids 

 to this, I want to mention two or three 

 things that we have found of grea import- 

 ance. 



First, we make our irrigating furrows as 

 nearly the depth of the annual plowing as 

 possible. Thus putting the water nearest 

 where needed, greatly reducing the surface 

 saturation where so much water is 

 wasted, and facilitating the early covering 

 of the furrows after irrigation. 



Second, any portion of the orchard 

 where there is any special occasion we 

 cross-furrow before making main furrows. 

 This done, with a little hard work, the 

 short pieces of the cross-furrows are easily 

 filled and kept full. (This is of special 

 advantage among large trees where the 

 spaces between the furrows, between the 

 trees, are necessarily wide.) 



Third, we run water three days in place 

 of two, total amount of water the same. I 

 think this practice may be adopted much 

 more generally than it has been, to great 

 advantage. We find that the third day 

 leave^* more water in the ground than 

 either of the others. By this method of 

 irrigation I feel quite satisfied that the 

 root strata could have been kept thorough- 

 ly wet in spite of the hard layer, in any of 

 the young orchards where I have seen the 

 subsoil plow used. In older orchards 

 where this layer has been hardening for 

 years, the implement may prove of great 

 service. Of course even in young orchards 

 the desired results can not be secured by 

 the most careful irrigation, except the 

 water when once in the ground is con- 

 served by proper cultivation. 



Again, I would like to refer to our own 

 experiences. Instead of waiting for the 

 irrigating furrows to become dry and the n 



