CHAPTER VI 

 GARDEN DRAINAGE IN CALIFORNIA. 



It may be remarked, as a generalization based upon a 

 wide view of our two-season year, that the secret of 

 success in California vegetable growing consists in getting 

 plants "out of the wet" at one time and into it at an- 

 other. It would, perhaps, be more exact to say that 

 success lies in securing generous but not excessive moist- 

 ure at all times, and this is essential to the best growth 

 of the plant in any climate. And yet so strikingly antith- 

 etical are our moisture-extremes at the height of the 

 two seasons, and so characteristic, both in times and meth- 

 ods, are the policies and practices by which we modify 

 both to the best advantage, that the world-wide princi- 

 ples to which they conform are out of sight of the casual 

 observer. For it is not only that we have always to 

 guard against extremes of saturation and aridity and 

 keep the plant along the lines of sufficiency that is the 

 universal proposition. In addition to this, California, 

 speaking generally, has to do special work against one 

 extreme at one time and against the other extreme at 

 another time ; hence the opening remark. 



Regulation of moisture in California either involves 

 more considerations than are usually recognized in humid 

 climates or involves them in higher degree and imputes 

 to them increased significance. Choice of location and 

 soil; time and method of planting and cultivation; the 

 choice of the crop with reference to natural moisture 

 supply and the atmospheric conditions ; the employment 

 of irrigation ; and the desirability, or otherwise, of arti- 

 ficial drainage facilities all these are factors which are 

 perhaps more sharply concerned in results here than in 



