26 



irrigation, after the wood has ripened, is very good, as it had the 

 entire winter to soak away and leave the soil in fine condition for 

 the trees to put forth the necessary growth early the next season. 

 My practice of preparing land for irrigation is to plough a deep 

 furrow for the water. I favour this plan in order to prevent 

 flooding the land. I want to keep my surface as dry as possible, 

 in order that I may get on to the land more quickly with horses 

 to cultivate it, as this is the method by which we retain the 

 moisture in the ground. If the furrows are allowed to remain 

 uncultivated any length of time, they will crack open, then I 

 think irrigation will have done more harm than good. This has- 

 been one of the reasons that we over-irrigated in years past. We 

 irrigated through furrows, and in cultivating did not entirely fill 

 them. In a few days they would crack open, and the hot sun and 

 wind would soon dry out the surface, so that we would be com- 

 pelled to apply the water soon again, therefore getting our land 

 soggy and sour by too much water. Irrigate sparingly. Keep 

 the water from the surface and feed the surface roots by cultiva- 

 tion from moisture below. This might be called sub-irrigation. 

 This rule holds good for general agriculture, as throrough cultiva- 

 tion is beneficial to all plant life. If fresh air is beneficial to 

 human life, so it also is to plant life, and this pure air cannot be 

 injected into the soil, if flooding is practised. I am satisfied after- 

 several years of experience tn Colorado that surface cultivation is 

 one of the cheapest and most effective methods of checking 

 excessive evaporation. This fact does not appear to be well under- 

 stood in thia State, and many of our irrigatiors have an important 

 lesson yet to learn in this regard. Irrigating water can never take 

 the place of cultivation. As we all well know, the custom of 

 many irrigators is to apply large quantities of water to growing 

 crops, and the water makes a paste of the top soil. In less than 

 thirty-six hours the moisture in this top layer may be evaporated, 

 leaving it hard and baked. Under such conditions it is astonish- 

 ing how rapidly the soil moisture is converted into vapour. It is as 

 if millions of tiny tubes extended through this top crust to suck 

 up the moisture contained in both the soil and subsoil. If this 

 process is long continued, there will be found little moisture 

 within a foot of the surface. 



In the general system of orchard cultivation in California, two 

 evils are to be guarded against, too early ploughing of the land,, 

 before there is sufficient growth of weeds, or early cultivation to 

 keep down weeds, and a system of irrigating which keeps the 

 land soggy at one time and with a hard crust on the surface at 

 another. 



Late, second ploughing is also to be discountenanced, one good 

 ploughing in early spring, followed by the disc or the tooth-harrow,, 

 being better suited to aid conservation of moisture, as well as the 

 constant adding to the land of humus and nitrogen." 



