148 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



ticed with good success. After the crops are all har- 

 vested the water is turned on and the soil is given a 

 thorough soaking. Subsoiling greatly enhances the 

 value of winter irrigation, which furnishes moisture for 

 the starting of plant life in the early spring, and causes 

 the weeds and other remnants of the cropping season to 

 more easily decay and act as a top-dressing of fertilizers. 

 The land is also put in good condition for plowing early 

 in the spring. But very few crops should be irrigated 

 from the time of planting till after the plants have had 

 several days' growth. Fall irrigation supplies moisture 

 sufficient to start the crops and gives them a vigorous 

 growth of a few weeks before irrigation is necessary. It 

 is better for young plants to have the moisture come 

 from beneath than from the surface, especially in the 

 early spring, when water for irrigation is several degrees 

 colder than that stored in the soil by irrigating late in 

 the fall. 



We have found in Colorado that irrigation may be 

 applied advantageously before the regular cold days of 

 winter set in, and this practice is adopted generally by 

 successful cultivators where water can be had at that 

 time of the year. The late irrigation is useful after a 

 dry fall and is especially to be commended in the prepa- 

 ration for crops which require the maximum amount of 

 moisture, and for orchards, or where the water supply is 

 likely to be short the coming season. It places the land 

 in the condition of a storage reservoir for the succeeding 

 season, and experience has shown that the soil that 

 has received a thorough irrigation in the fall or early 

 winter has great advantage over ground that ha< not. 

 This is true when land is fall-plowed, and the water may 

 be applied either by rills or by flooding. Let it In- a 

 iruod deep soaking. Orchardists are generally adopt inir 

 this plan for their trees, and thus the evil effects of win- 

 ter drying arc circumvented. 



