R. M. Teague Nurseries, San Dimas, Cal. 
21 
enough fertilization to keep them well supplied with 
plant food. The latter applies more particularly to 
bearing trees. 
The most of our California soils contain sufficient 
plant food so that fertilization is not absolutely nec- 
essary for the first two or three years, but a little 
fertilizer applied each year after the trees are planted 
will tend to keep up the fertility of the soil and often 
times adds to the vigor of the tree. 
allowed to go just a little short of water, it will tend 
to send its feeding roots deeper where the moisture 
is more uniform and thus enable it to better with- 
stand the summer heat. One can go to extremes both 
ways in the matter of irrigation, either of which is 
dangerous to the future welfare of the orchard, but 
it is safe to say that whenever the trees show the 
least signs of wilting they should be irrigated. 
The method of irrigation most generally used is 
Irrigating a hillside citrus fruit orchard by contour furrowing. 
It is impossible to lay down any hard and fast rule 
as to the proper amount, time and manner of apply- 
ing water in the irrigation of citrus orchards. These 
matters depend largely on the nature of the soil and 
climatic condition of the locality where the planting 
is done. After the trees are established it is not 
usually necessary to irrigate oftener than once in 
every thirty days or six weeks, excepting on very 
light sandy soils where it is sometimes necessary to 
irrigate every three or four weeks, especially during 
the warmest part of the summer. In our opinion it 
is more dangerous to irrigate young trees too much 
rather than too little. The over irrigation tends to 
bring the fibre roots close to the surface where the 
least warm weather and drying out of the surface 
soil will cause the tree to wilt, whereas if the tree is 
known as the furrow system. In young trees one 
furrow is made on each side of the row eight to six- 
teen inches from the tree, and the water is run until 
the soil is well saturated up to the tree. On newly 
planted stock, it is sometimes advisable to hoe the 
soil away and allow the water to come even closer 
than this in order to be assured that the moisture 
will reach every part of the root system, but in no 
case should the soil be hoed away so as to allow the 
water to stand around the trunk of the tree. As the 
trees get older the furrows are run further away 
from the trees and in soils where the moisture does 
not spread rapidly, it is advisable to run cross fur- 
rows on each side of the trees and run the water into 
these from the main ones. After the second year, 
two furrows should be run on each side of the trees 
