52 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



not need to be cultivated unless the water has been on too long and made 

 the soil soggy. Once the garden is made it is very little work to keep in a 

 tip-top condition. 



Lowland Irrigation by Seepage. Another form of irrigation 

 by means of permanent ditches is that practiced on reclaimed lands 

 along the interior rivers. When the rivers are swollen from sum- 

 mer melting of snow in the high Sierra, the water is brought to the 

 land by flood-gates in the levees. When the rivers are low very 

 capacious pumping plants are used the same serving at other times 

 to drain the lands when they are too wet from the rainfall or seep- 

 age. The soils of these reclaimed lands is loose and prone to dry 

 out because of their lack of capillarity, so that at times irrigation is 

 as necessary as on uplands. The water is distributed by means of 

 small, rather deep, ditches from which moisture readily extends as 

 the water moves out over the clay bottom which underlies most of 

 these lands and makes it possible to hold the water up within reach 

 of the roots of the plants. With rich land, high heat and ample 

 moisture just below the surface the growth is almost marvelous. 

 On these lowlands flooding the surface frequently seriously injures 

 the plants by sun scald. 



Ridge System of Irrigating and Planting. Another plan of 

 using seepage from permanent ditches is the ridge system by which 

 the water is run at a little elevation above the surface, upright 

 plants being placed beside the water on the top of the ridges and 

 running plants on the side of the ridges with the lower ground 

 between the ridges for the extension of their growth. The general 

 significance of the arrangement lies in keeping the water supply 

 constant near the roots, and it is adapted to rather open soils in 

 which lateral percolation is deficient. The elevation of the ditch 

 thus helps to hold moisture near the surface on which the plants 

 are placed without resorting to flooding as in the check system. It 

 is obviously well adapted to a region of very light rainfall and can 

 be laid out in a way to drain the ridges when surplus water has to 

 be disposed of. It involves a large amount of hand work. In a 

 locality where both summer and winter gardening must be largely 

 dependent upon irrigation it has striking advantages. The follow- 

 ing description is from a Kern county vegetable grower, 9 who speaks 

 from five years' satisfactory experience with the method : 



In preparing the ground make it as near level as possible, and cover the 

 soil with about two inches of manure (avoid coarse straw or stalks), and 

 plow this under six to eight inches deep. Then harrow and cultivate until 

 the soil is smooth and fine. Use a wire or line to lay out the ground ; spread 

 fine manure (well rotted is preferable) two feet wide and one inch thick, on 

 a line directly from your windmill or tank across the plat of ground. Take 

 a plow and turn two furrows together directly over the manure, making a 

 high ridge. Smooth and firm the soil with a rake or hoe, and directly on 

 top and lengthwise of the ridge form a ditch or trough about five inches 

 wide and three inches deep, on a grade so the water will run from one end 



9 F. M. Reynolds, Delano. 



