THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Ill 



THE PRIMER OF IRRIGATION. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1903, BY D. H. ANDERSON. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



ORCHARDS, VINEYARDS AND SMALJ, FRUITS. 



If there is no water in the subsoil of an orchard, 

 no ground water, or water table, as it is called, it. will 

 be advisable to create an artificial one. One great 

 drawback in orchard cultivation in the arid and semi- 

 arid regions is, that the moisture does not penetrate to 

 a sufficient depth to enable the deep roots to derive 

 any benefit therefrom. The consequence is that where 

 the moisture occupies a shallow belt the small feeding 

 roots are forced to come to the surface, or near enough 

 to the surface to receive all the desiccating effects of 

 a hot sun, and a dry atmosphere. As trees require 

 their natural food as well as plants of the most suc- 

 culent nature, it will be readily perceived that these 

 surface roots will soon exhaust the nourishment they 

 require and then the whole tree will feel the effects. 



The finer and more highly flavored the fruit the 

 more care must be taken to see that it has the proper 

 quality and amount of food elements. It requires the 

 destruction of a vast quantity of roses to obtain one 

 single ounce of attar of roses, and to perfect the flavor 

 of a single peach the distillation in the laboratory of 

 the soil must be enormous. When it comes to one or 

 several acres of luscious fruit, the quantity of elements 

 necessary to perfect the fruit is simply incalculable. 



Prom this idea will naturally be derived two sug- 

 gestions: Let nothing grow in an orchard but the 

 trees bearing fruit; second, see to it that the soil has 

 moisture down to a good depth, five or six feet, before 

 venturing to set out the selected trees. 



It is sometimes customary to plant small fruits 

 between the rows of fruit trees; some plant vegetables, 

 strawberries, and even forage plants to occupy the 

 ground and keep it busy while the fruit trees are grow- 

 ing and coming into bearing. Better have only one 

 tree in its twenty or thirty feet square of well tilled 

 vacant soil, than ten trees surrounded by stranger plants 

 to eat out their substance. There is a very good rea- 

 son for not mixing up plants in this manner, which 

 is, not all plants require the same amount of mois- 

 ture, some requiring more, others less. Now if the 

 orchard is made a hodge podge of plants with differ- 

 ent appetites, and requiring a different diet, how will 

 it be possible to administer to each one according to 

 its necessities? Some will.be overfed, other underfed, 

 with the result that none of them will be perfect or 

 produce what is expected or hoped from them. The 

 only case where a little crowding will be justified is 

 in the case of peach trees. These come into bearing 

 very young, in some localities under the most favorable 

 circumstances two or three years after setting out, at 

 which time the -tree will be about five years old. As 

 peach trees bear heavily when fostered carefully, they 

 are short lived, and therefore, many fruit farmers plant 

 young peach trees in the rows about fifteen feet from 

 the bearing trees when the latter are in their third 

 or fourth year of bearing, and when the old trees 

 shown signs of degeneracy they are cut down and the 

 younger trees left to bear the burden of production 

 alone. There is no harm in thus maintaining the full 

 vigor of a peach orchard, for the trees belong to the 

 family and require; the same food for their main- 



tenance and practically the same quantity of irrigating 

 water. 



So far as filling the soil with water is concerned, 

 where there is an absence of ground water it is better to 

 irrigate for a full year or season before setting out the 

 young orchard trees. If the soil is carefully tilled 

 and pulverized, just as if the orchard were in good 

 bearing, the next season will find an orchard ready for 

 planting, and the process of growth .will continue with- 

 out any interruption and the applying of water be at- 

 tended with less waste. 



If there is ground water in plenty and within six 

 or eight feet of the surface it is liable to come nearer 

 by fresh applications of water and trench upon the 

 root zone, thus destroying the trees. This will soon 

 appear in evidence by the top limbs drying up or dy- 

 ing. It should be always borne in mind that generally 

 there is as much of the plant under the ground as 

 above it. Nothing but the tap root bores its way 

 straight down; the rootlets and feeders spread out in 

 every direction, something in the shape of a fan. Hence 

 if some of these roots are injured the tops of the trees 

 will also suffer. Metaphorically, the roots of every 

 tree are its nerves, which can not be interfered with 

 without injuring some member of the tree. Root- 

 pruning is often practiced when taken in connection 

 with limb-pruning, but where good, strong roots are 

 desired top- or limb-pruning is beneficial. But the 

 roots alone can not be tampered with except at the 

 expense of the tree. 



In the case, therefore, of too much ground water, 

 or a liability to raising the water table, drainage tile 

 should at once be put in at least five feet down, not 

 in the middle of the rows, but comparatively near the 

 trees, as far, perhaps, as they are buried underground. 

 If arranged in this manner they will serve for drainage 

 and also for sub-irrigation. The attention of the 

 author has been called to cases where the subsoil was 

 originally dry down for a hundred feet, and there was 

 never a thought of the possibility of a water table ever 

 forming. But it did, and by constant irrigations the 

 water found an impervious strata and then began to 

 collect and form a water table, which required drainage 

 in the course of less than five years from the time of 

 the establishment of the orchard. 



Furrow irrigation is the most suitable, however, 

 in most orchards, and it has always proved adequate to 

 produce excellent crops. But the furrows must run 

 deep and the after cultivation must be thorough or 

 evaporation will injure the plants. Long furrows are 

 to be avoided, and the water should never be "rushed" 

 through them. Short furrows and a slow flow will 

 tend to soak far enough down into the soil to reach the 

 roots and far enough beyond that to enable the capil- 

 lary motion to have a supply to carry up into the ex- 

 hausted portions of the root zone. Three good irriga- 

 tions during the season are ample and more than enough 

 where there are ten inches of rainfall and a supply of 

 underground water to draw upon. This can be ac- 

 quired by fall and winter irrigation; that is, running 

 the water into, not upon, the land after the leaves have 

 fallen and following it up in the fall by deep plowing, 

 cultivation and harrowing. Some dig a basin around 

 their apple trees in the fall, and when freezing weather 

 comes fill the basin with water and let it freeze. They 

 say it prevents the tree from blossoming too early in 

 the spring. Others mulch around their trees heavily 



