GETTING PLANTS OUT OF THE WET 73 



the cultivator do its work finely and to sufficient depth if it is sum- 

 mer irrigation for advanced plant growth. Do not let the irrigated 

 land lie until it yields clods to the cultivator. Seize it soon, as good 

 tilth waits on stirring; "and when 'tis done then 'twere well it were 

 done quickly." 



But soil stirring after irrigation is also the surety of effective 

 irrigation. "The first thing when flood water leaves silt here in 

 Coachella valley is to flop the silt under as soon as you can get on 

 the land," says Bruce Drummond of the Indio Experiment Station. 

 "If you don't, it seals your soil up and your irrigation water doesn't 

 get through it. I am kept on the go most of the time to answer 

 questions of people who want to know what is wrong with their 

 trees, truck, etc. In many cases I can take a shovel and show them 

 that they are not getting water down to the roots." 



RIDGES, HILLS, RAISED BEDS AND LEVEL CULTURE. 



Though the considerations suggested by these words are in- 

 volved in irrigation and drainage, they are commonly regarded as 

 phases of cultivation. It is almost obvious that all methods of 

 lifting the plant bed above the common surface are equivalent to 

 providing it with the fullest facilities for surface drainage. When- 

 ever, then, ridging or hilling or raising whole garden beds is prac- 

 ticed without connection with irrigation upon the elevated surface, 

 it affords exceptional means for the escape of surplus water and 

 relief to the plant from saturated soil. By this act the winter growth 

 of vegetables, hardy enough to withstand the local climate, can be 

 carried on in the most retentive soil under a very heavy rainfall. 



Ridging. It matters not whether this ridging is done very 

 quickly with the plow by back furrowing or whether a raised bed 

 is made in the small garden with a retaining border, the principle 

 is the same and it is a very useful one. It affords a ready answer 

 to the requirement which exists in many parts of California for 

 facilitating winter growth by drainage without at the same time 

 endangering too great loss of water for summer cropping. The 

 back furrow gives the plants a greater depth of stirred soil, which is 

 especially valuable in the rainy season. After the early crop of 

 hardy vegetables is disposed of there will still be time to plow down 

 the ridges and put the soil in receptive shape for the late winter or 

 spring rains, cultivating being done later to retain moisture until 

 the frost-free period arrives, when the same land will take its sum- 

 mer crop of tender vegetables with or without irrigation as the 

 character of the soil, the proposed growth and the local rainfall 

 shall require. 



Raised Beds. A more elaborate application of the same prin- 

 ciples consist in the raised beds, which are very useful for winter 

 growth in the small garden and, in combination with irrigation by 

 seepage as already described in the chapter on that subject, afford 



