23 



The main points to be taken into consideration are the depth of 

 the soil, the character of the soil, the style of the sub-soil and the 

 position of the orchard. 



T )o much water is always more serious than too little, it chills 

 the soil, tends to render it infertile, washes out the fertilizer, 

 bringing the alkaline salts (if any) near the surface by evapora- 

 tion until in time it renders the soil worthless, it also tends to 

 exclude the air from the soil which is as necessary to the roots as 

 the moisture. 



On the other hand, as we have said befoie, if there is not 

 enough water in the soil the tree fails to grow healthily and 

 drops its fruit, or ripens miserable, undersized stuff if any. 



There are some growers in this country who preach the gospel 

 of no water, there are others who irrigate copiously as we say, 

 both these advocates may be right or may be wrong because a 

 certain system suits one farm, do not for a moment imagine 

 that it will suit the next. 



Speaking generally, we would say that with favourable condi- 

 tions and depth of soil a tree should grow without irrigation, 

 provided there is a rainfall of 20 in. to 30 in., but to take the 

 opposite extreme we have seen stretches of land in this country 

 carrying beautiful orchards without any artificial irrigation and in 

 districts where the rainfall is under 10 inches. 



Should the leading of water have to be resorted to, we 

 infinitely prefer the furrow system, draw with a plough, 

 or otherwise one or two furrows along each side of the 

 entire length of trees which must receive water, the distance from 

 the rows of trees that the nearest furrow must be drawn will 

 depend entirely on the size of the tree, a four year old tree we 

 would say roughly at three feet if of course the tree be small, one 

 furrow on each side is sufficient ; when the water is turned into 

 the furrow we prefer to let in a strong head if available, and when 

 the end of the roots is reached turn the majority of the water into 

 the next furrows, leaving just enough in to allow the water to 

 reach the far end, and if the soil is deep we like to see the water 

 running so through each furrow for twenty-four hours, for twelve 

 hours at the very least, we are very keen on this point. The 

 majority of irrigated orchards, especially Citrus orchards, are 

 irrigated on a system which is as detrimental to the tree as can 

 well be ; the water is led in furrows until clcse to each tree, then 

 turned out of the furrows and allowed to spread over the ground ; 

 when the ground is well covered in say five to ten minutes the 

 next tree is tackled in like manner. We state that this style of 

 irrigation is as bad as it can be, and by no means as economical as 

 its advocate (and it has many) will have one believe. In the 

 ordinary soil such an irrigation will not penetrate the soil more 

 than two feet, and often not more than twelve inches ; we do not 

 say that the soil is dry below this depth, because those who 

 practise this system begin soon after the rains are over and keep 



