434 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



derfully mellow and could have been harrowed down 

 to a fine seed-bed. I plowed three acres in one and 

 one-half days and then cross-plowed it, going every two^ 

 and one-half feet apart and twenty inches deep. 



' ' When I came to cross-plow I discovered the 

 change even more marked. I plowed from one end in 

 the form of a back furrow, going every five feet, or as 

 close as the plow would run with the near horse close 

 to the last mark. After this back furrow land became 

 about thirty feet wide I split the marks going one way, 

 and came back five feet away as before, thus always 

 turning one way ; and as I leaned the plow only a 

 little I plowed around the ends, which in fac5l were the 

 best plowed. This second plowing was done to the 

 hard-pan, but not in it. The soil was real moist for 

 ^ix inches down, when from there to the hard-pan it 

 was as dry as blotting-paper, and had probably not 

 been wet for two years or more. Now this earth is at 

 least six or eight inches higher than before, and will 

 take in all the rain it can hold, and the lower soil 

 in drying out again will of necessity supply the surface 

 with moisture, as the gumbo below it is waterproof." 



Irrigation Hard-Pan.— Thisisone of the peculiar 

 annoying outgrowths of surface irrigation in many 

 parts of the irrigated west, especially among the citrus 

 orchards of Southern California. This singular sub- 

 stratum should not be confounded with the natural 

 hard-pan in stifE clay soils found the world over. The 

 irrigation hard-pan is an altogether different condition, 

 occurring as it does in deep, loamy soils, and is appar- 

 ently occasioned by the gradual running together or 

 cementing of the soil in irrigated orchards at a depth 



