THE IEBIOATION AGE. 



days and nights and sometimes four. In a few places 

 in Orange county the old method of flooding in checks 

 about twenty-five feet square is still used because the 

 soil is too porous to hold up water fir in furrows. A 

 line of a dozen or two is fed from a ditch at the upper 

 side and about the time the last is full they commence 

 breaking them and letting the water into the next line, 

 then into the next and so on. This takes about three 

 men six to twelve hours for ten acres with a head of 

 two or three cubic feet a second. Three second feet 

 will equal three rain inches on ten acres in ten hours. 

 This takes lively work for a short time. With furrows 

 the same amount of water may be put in the ground 

 with a smaller head by one man working less than half 

 his time and generally producing better fruit. But it 

 may take much longer time at each irrigation, though 

 less during the year. But there is much of this soil in 

 all countries where furrows will be too slow if your 

 time limit for the run of water is short, so that flood- 

 ing is the most available method, though not the best 

 for results. 



Seventh. Flooding is sometimes the only way you 

 can start seed. Especially is this the case on desert 

 land. It has been the custom to smile at those who 

 live on the desert. But there is too much of it, now 

 producing too much wealth, to laugh at. One learns to 

 love the desert climate, scenery and elbow-room, gets 

 quickly used to the heat, which is so dry that it is not 

 oppressive, especially at the altitude of most of our 

 deserts. They are already supporting in luxury large 

 settlements and will in time be the richest parts of our 

 country for the same area. The lessons to be learned 

 from them cannot only be applied to sections having a 

 good rainfall, but many such lessons cannot be ignored. 

 I must beg the reader's indulgence for referring so 

 often to my own ranch, but he will pardon me if he 

 will remember that I have nothing to sell or recom- 

 mend and no time to answer any letters. After twenty- 

 five years' experience and observation in the best parts 

 of California I have learned more in seven years from 

 opening up a new place myself where others failed than 

 I did in all the previous time. And what I have so 

 learned is more valuable to the beginner on new ground 

 and in new climate. But most of the lessons are valu- 

 able anywhere. 



I am situated in what is probably the dryest part 

 of our country that part of the Mojave Desert lying 

 along the Mojave Eiver, some forty miles west of its 

 sink. The elevation is about two thousand feet, aver- 

 age rainfall about four inches, often less than three and 

 that only in winter. Temperature in summer 116 

 occasionally, but seldom over 112 and rarely below 100 

 except at night. Moisture in air about the extreme 

 minimum of the world. 



I have soil of several textures, from near clay to 

 the coarsest gravel. In spring when it is windy much 

 of the time, and in summer when it is hot but rarely 

 windy, I find it almost impossible to get a decent 

 stand of anything without flooding. The moisture can- 

 not be kept long enough at the immediate surface, even 

 for seeds like alfalfa (which is up inside of five days), 

 unless the surface is sealed over. My first planting of 

 alfalfa was in the most orthodox manner, with deep 

 plowing, fine harrowing, and immediate seeding and 



harrowing in on soil wet many feet deep. I got about 

 one plant to a square rod from about thirty-five pounds 

 of seed to the acre. I concluded that air spaces drying 

 out the soil under the hot sun and dry air had done the 

 mischief and that if the seed were drilled in shallow on 

 unplowed ground so dry that loose dirt could be easily 

 dragged back over the seed by the chains that trail 

 behind the feeders of the drill, and the whole then 

 sealed over by flooding, that I could get a stand in 

 spite of the hardening and tightening of the soil. The 

 .ground in the other case had been irrigated by furrows 

 and they were run for some time after planting without 

 effect, except in the bottom of the furrows, with a few 

 scattering plants along the sides. But now I rushed 

 a big head over the whole patch ; in five days the young 

 plants were lifting the thin crust in every direction ; 

 and I had a stand about three times too thick, although 

 I had planted the smallest amount of seed the drill 

 would feed about fifteen pounds to the acre, or half 

 of what is generally deemed necessary for sowing broad- 

 cast under good conditions and culture. 



I have found it the same in greater or less degree 

 with about everything else. Even such a simple thing 

 as a carrot I could hardly raise at all with furrow irri- 

 gation, but by thin flooding in lands I. can raise at 

 least twenty tons to the acre and am sure the yield has 

 been above that. But this was on heavily manured 

 ground. The natural soil is not rich enough, no mat- 

 ter how wet. But on that the seed would dry out un- 

 less sealed over by flooding, and on the manured 

 ground it would not only dry out before sprouting but 

 do it more quickly than on ground not manured. And 

 'the little that would start at all in that way would 

 soon burn out unless flooded. I have not tried this 

 with artificial fertilizers, but it is probable that there 

 would be something like the same results. And it is 

 also probable that to some extent it would be true in 

 a dry time in summer even in a land of good rainfall. 



One year I set out over 200 sweet potato plants with 

 furrows close beside them, ground well wet and .plants 

 well shaded from sun and wind. I lost every one. 

 The next year I set 300 in bottom of furrow without 

 shading and kept water running four days, and every 

 one grew all right. 



The beginner on a new piece anywhere should 

 study these points as fast as possible. 



Thus far I have been considering irrigation that is 

 indispensable for any crop, as on the dryest parts of the 

 desert. But all of these principles apply about as well 

 where the irrigation is only supplementary to a rain- 

 fall just a little short of what is needed for good results, 

 as in the greater part of California. And they cannot 

 safely be ignored anywhere that irrigation is expedient, 

 though not really necessary. If great results can be 

 obtained anywhere in our country by intensive farming 

 with rich fertilizers andf fine cultivation it is almost a 

 certainty that still greater results can be had by apply- 

 ing the right amount of water at the right time and 

 above all in the right way. And that, after all, is what 

 irrigation is. Irrigation is commonly supposed to be a 

 poor substitute for a good rainfall. Years of experi- 

 ence will show you that it is just the reverse, and that 

 ihe best rainfall in the country is a very poor substi- 

 tute for irrigation. 



