66 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



The following will be found suggestive in regard to the distribution 

 of water : 



The water is delivered from a flume laid down the hillside, and fitted 

 with cleats at each hole so as to throw off enough water at the sides, or 

 sometimes the flume is laid in steps connected with a bit of covered flume 

 from step to step. The latter is best for very steep hills, though, with care, 

 the other may be used on a greater slope than one would imagine. Another 

 flume should be laid at the end of the furrows to carry off the waste water. 



The contours may be laid out by any one with a carpenter's common 

 level. Fifty-five feet to the mile is nearly right for a very fine stream on 

 most soils. And this is about one foot in ninety-six, or two inches in sixteen 

 feet. Therefore take a sixteen-foot plank and level it to a slope of two 

 inches in its whole length. Then when the upper edge of this is level the lower 

 edge will represent the required grade for your ditch. In this way the work 

 can be done very rapidly. 



The same thing is equally good for laying common little flumes, cement 

 ditches, etc. But in earth, one should determine by trial the amount of slope 

 the soil will stand without cutting or filling up with sediment or refusing to 

 run fast enough in case the soil is very porous. A mistake of a few inches 

 in a hundred feet will generally not be serious, but the more nearly exact you 

 can get it the better. Every approach to perfection in your first arrange- 

 ments diminishes your future work and annoyance. 



All manner of stuff is now raised in this way in California on hillsides that 

 a few years ago, when covered with brush, seemed too steep and rough even 

 to plow. When once made the furrows of course are left in place but the 

 water finds its way to the center between them quite as well as on more 

 level ground. 



Irrigation by Sprinkling. Systems of iron pipe laid below 

 reach of plow and spade and furnished with stand pipes and revolv- 

 ing sprinklers, or other showering devices, have been successfully 

 used to a limited extent, and some have strongly favored them in 

 spite of the considerable cost of the outfit. They are worthy of 

 consideration where water under adequate pressure is available. 

 They are labor-saving, but they encourage neglect of cultivation, 

 and to that extent arei undesirable, especially on soils which harden 

 on drying. 



Sub-irrigation by Tile or Pipes. Californians have been ex- 

 perimenting with subterranean distribution with tile or specially 

 constructed pipes and outlets for probably more than forty years 

 and yet none of the proposed systems have ever come into use ex- 

 cept under the eye of the inventor. In early days iron troughs inverted 

 on redwood boards; small flumes or boxes of redwood boards; 

 bricks set on edge and covered with boards; drain tile with and 

 without perforations all these were suggested, given trial, and 



