THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



45 



and the sun not too hot, many things like grapes, al- 

 monds, figs, potatoes and melons will need no more that 

 year if the crop is not too heavy and the subsoil is deep 

 enough. Oranges and lemons and many other things 

 cannot go so long, but even with them the difference 

 in the amount of water needed is very great. But the 

 tree will live. The only trouble will be in the size or 

 quality of the fruit. 



Probably the best instance of all this is the farm- 

 ing that has for ages been done by the Cocopahs, an In- 

 dian tribe of several hundred living wholly by farming 

 on the Lower Colorado river, some fifty miles below 

 the American line, and on one of the worst and most 

 dangerous deserts of the world. There is probably no 

 other land where so many people have perished from 

 Betting out of water in intense heat and drv air lasting 

 about nine months. These Indians raise corn, melons, 

 squashes and some other things and bring them to ma- 

 turity solely on the water left in the ground from the 

 overflow of the Colorado river and miles away from its 

 regular bed. And they do it by making a hole in the 

 wet ground with a stick and nutting in the seed. No 

 cultivation afterward is known among them. This is 

 probably the old Egyptian style, and while the crops 

 are far from what they could be with nroper cultivation, 

 they do prove that some ground carries water a long 

 time when once well filled. 



The great importance of the principle lies in this 

 and no one can afford to ignore it. Even on the thin- 

 nest soils it is important, for in all there is something 

 of a subsoil soft rock, clay on top of the rock, hard- 

 pan that softens and holds water, or something of the 

 sort, which you cannot afford to leave dry while you 

 toy with a thin blanket of wet earth above it. Now 

 if anything wilts for want of water on a dry subsoil it 

 is always injured, often badly. A shinkage of fruit on 

 a heavily laden tree cannot be remedied by any amount 

 of water so as to bring the crop up to what it should 

 have been. If alfalfa wilts on a dry subsoil, when it is 

 between six or eight inches high and before it comes 

 into full bloom, probably one-third of that cutting is 

 gone and often one-half, no matter how nuickly water is 

 put on the top. But if the subsoil is wet, you may 

 often make the whole cutting, with no water on top. 

 Or if it goes too dry on top, there will be a slow darken- 

 ing of the sunny green, which gives you ample warn- 

 ing, and the loss will be slight. 



The folly of thin wetting is best shown in thou- 

 sands of the lawns of Southern California. If a blue 

 grass lawn is thoroughly wet to bed rock by flooding or 

 long furrow irrfgation, it will go two or three weeks or 

 more without suffering unless too much manure has been 

 used or the soil is too thin. A light sprinkling once 

 a week would then suffice to keep the surface wet enough. 

 Instead of that the sprinkler is kept running every day, 

 the grass is all trained to surface roots and if for any 

 reason the water fails, a very few days sees it all foxv 

 and faded, requiring long sprinkling to restore the 

 original green. And a few days of hot weather will 

 kill considerable of the top, so that if it comes up at all 

 it will be by new shoots from a root not wholly dead. 

 Such suffering is quick and also fatal to some things, 

 while with a wet subsoil the suffering is slow, gives you 

 abundant warning and kills nothing for a long time. 



Therefore, one of the first things to do is to find 

 how your soil holds moisture in the subsoil as well as 

 in the top soil. For soils of the same depth and ap- 



parently of the same texture will vary greatly in this 

 respect. Suppose you have a soil like fine shot, with all 

 the grains of about the same size. Such a texture would 

 look all right and would hold more water than a mixed 

 soil, provided you had it in a vessel so that the water 

 could not escape. But after the water has run out the 

 moisture remaining will be much less than in a mixed 

 soil of a dozen sizes, from coarse gravel down to the 

 finest dust. We have some river bottom wash in places 

 in California of uniform size of grain, where no amount 

 of cultivation will retain moisture in the top soil or 

 bring any up from below, although it is only eight feet 

 or so to sheet water from the river near by. On sucli 

 soil it is common to see grain wilt in a week after a 

 good rain, with plenty of water six feet below some- 

 thing quite impossible on the mixed soil of the uplands. 



If you have this kind of soil you must plant some- 

 thing deep-rooted that is but slightly injured, if at all, 

 by its roots reaching water such as the pear tree. 

 Alfalfa win do fairly well if the water is moving, but 

 generally not if it is stagnant. You may raise paying 

 crops, but not big ones. A mistake in such matters 

 means often two or more years of time as well as loss 

 in the profit. 



But you must not imagine that everything can be 

 held up to the productive point by wet subsoil. Such 

 things as strawberries must have surface water every 

 few days. Every third day is not too much where the 

 sun is hot enough. Even the plant will amount to 

 nothing without frequent surface watering. Cucumbers 

 will make quite a growth and the plant go through with 

 very little surface watering if the subsoil be wet enough. 

 But the cucumbers will be poor in quality and the yield 

 short. To go through a long list of products in this 

 way would be of little use, because the differing condi- 

 tions of soil and climate will modify them all. I merely 

 use enough to call attention to the ririnciple ; the appli- 

 cation you should study out for yourself, and you can- 

 not do it too speedily. 



NOT AFFECTED BY DEPRESSION. 



One Big Industry That Makes Its Business Grow and Ex- 

 pand During Year of Business Depression. 



When a manufacturing establishment reaches out in a 

 year of depression and increases and expands its business, 

 while others in the same line diminish their outputs or 

 stand still, it is because there must be some unusually good 

 reason for it. In this instance a splendid reputation and 

 a more-than-ordinary meritorious product were responsi- 

 ble for the showing made. 



The Mayer Boot & Shoe Company, Milwaukee, the 

 largest shoe establishment in the Northwest, has just 

 closed its fiscal year and reports an increase in sales over 

 the corresponding period of last year. This exceptional 

 showing speaks volumes for the genuine merit of Mayer 

 shoes, and is directly attributable to their high standard, 

 and because of the fact that Mayer shoes have become uni- 

 versally and popularly known as "shoes of quality." 



Most of our readers, no doubt, have become familiar 

 with the shoe advertisements of this enterprising firm, that 

 have been appearing in the columns of this publication 

 for a number of years past. To those who have not yet 

 become familiar with the extraordinary wearing qualities 

 of Mayer shoes we would recommend a closer acquaint- 

 ance by a purchase of a pair at the first occasion. 



The leading brands are "Honorbilt" fine shoes for 

 men, "Leading Lady" fine shoes for women, "Yerma" 

 Cushion shoes for both men and women (these are ex- 

 ceptionally fine shoes for people troubled with tender 

 feet) . 



