320 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



be. This mulch is to be allowed to remain until the 

 plants show signs of blooming in the spring, when it is 

 to be raked from the rows to the spaces between. Fur- 

 rows for watering are then to be opened on one or both 

 sides of each row. 



Irrigating. — The preliminary work of the first 

 year is all that is required in the way of cultivation, 

 and the second year's irrigation need only be sufficient 

 to keep the soil in moist tilth until the critical period 

 of fruitage, when a good deal of irrigation is neces- 

 sary, but the soil must not become soaked. The fruit- 

 ing season may be prolonged from four to six weeks 

 by having made a good selecflion of early and late 

 plants. After the fruit is set use less water on the 

 early varieties and more on the late. It is a good 

 rule to irrigate immediately after the bed or a portion 

 thereof has been picked, as the supplied moisture will 

 be largely instrumental in more perfe(5lly developing 

 the unripened fruit, and bring it to more complete 

 fruition. It is a good plan, in the spring, to remove 

 the winter mulch from the crowns of the plants only, 

 allowing that portion covering the furrows to remain. 

 Irrigation waters passing under this mulch will have 

 a beneficial effedl in fertilizing the soil and assisting 

 plant nutrition. After the crop is gathered the mulch 

 may be removed. Some growers go so far as to run a 

 mowing-machine over the patch, set as high as possible, 

 to cut of the tops of leaves and all the new weeds, after 

 which the rubbish is all raked up together and drawn 

 off. Then cultivate through the center of the paths, 

 apply a coat of well-rotted manure all over the ground, 

 harrow and cross-harrow with weights on the drag, 



