METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. IQI 



is to set a length of sewer pipe, or a two-foot box six 

 or eight inches square, into the ground two or three 

 feet from the trunk. Into this box water is poured 

 until it is filled, or it may be conveyed in a hose and 

 allowed to run for some time, so as to give the roots a 

 good soaking. It is better to have three or four of 

 these boxes placed around a tree, so as to distribute 

 the water more evenly in the ground. This contri- 

 vance is seen along village streets where shade trees 

 are grown. • 



Borders or Checks. — This is a cumbersome 

 method of field irrigation in pra(5lice by Mexican farm- 

 ers, but which is gradually going out of use. Each 

 border includes a few rods only, and the borders are 

 from six to twelve inches high, which would indeed 

 interfere sadly with the use of machinery. The plats 

 are filled with water, which is quickly run off from one 

 to the other after a thorough saturation of the soil. 

 If, however, the land is well leveled, five or ten acre 

 patches instead of a few square rods may be enclosed 

 with borders or ridges, which would be the improved 

 American plan on a Mexican basis. These acres can 

 be enclosed with borders made in such a way as not to 

 interfere with implements. The borders can be made 

 into gentle swells, eight, ten, or twelve inches in the 

 center, and the base twenty feet. The objedl is to 

 secure quick and thorough irrigation. Some have 

 called it the checkerboard system, but it is the only 

 one that native farmers know, and those crops that 

 they attempt to grow are indeed very prolific. 



The Contour System. — In California, where 

 this plan is in vogue, it is in reality a modification of 



