1366 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



before. Winter vetch has been grown in 

 a few orchards and promises to he a 

 valuable plant to grow as a cover crop, 

 planted either in the spring and plowed 

 under in July or August, or planted in the 

 fall and plowed under the following 

 spring or summer. Alfalfa as a cover 

 crop is not being grown on a large acre- 

 age because it is very hard to plow under 

 in the orchard and get the land back into 

 clean cultivation. 



The annual or biennial crops offer the 

 best plants for orchard cover crops, as 

 most of them produce a large amount of 

 humus and are easily worked into the 

 soil. 



Irrigation 



Practically all orchards are irrigated 

 by what is known as the furrow system, 

 with from one to four or five furrows 

 between the tree rows. These furrows 

 are usually not more than one-fourth mile 

 long and even shorter furrows will ac- 

 complish a better distribution of water. 

 Much depends, however, on the character 

 of the soil being irrigated. The water is 

 run through the furrows from a few 

 hours to 24 or sometimes as long as 48 

 hours, depending upon the character of 

 the soil in downward and lateral seepage 

 from the furrows. 



In clean cultivated orchards where the 

 soil moisture can be conserved by a dust 

 mulch, one or two irrigations are usually 

 sufficient to grow a crop. Where cover 

 crops or even intertilled crops are grown 

 it is sometimes necessary to irrigate three 

 or more times during a season. Old bear- 

 ing orchards also require more water than 

 young orchards that have not come into 

 full bearing. There is but little seepage 

 from underground water on the benches 

 and practically no drainage has been done 

 on the bench lands. On some of the bot- 

 tom orchard land underground water has 

 come to the surface and has caused such 

 land to be drained before profitable fruit 

 crops could be grown. The injury from 

 seepage is likely to increase as more of 

 the bench land is put under irrigation 

 and the land has been irrigated for a 

 longer time than it has at present. 



The natural water table on the east- 



side benches ranges in depth from 10 or 

 15 feet to 200 or 300 feet, and from the 

 rather rapid sloiie of the bench lands un- 

 derground water is not likely to damage 

 the fruit lands. 



Kinds and Varieties of Fruit Crops 



Apples, pears, plums, cherries, prunes 

 and other hardy deciduous fruits have 

 been profitably grown, while the hardy 

 bush fruits grow and produce in great 

 abundance. 



Of the apples the Mcintosh is probably 

 the most profitable variety grown and 

 surely the most generally planted va- 

 riety. The Jonathan, Delicious, Rome 

 Beauty, Gano, Wealthy and a few other 

 varieties are being grown in commercial 

 quantities. 



Up until a tew years ago a large acre- 

 age of Transcendent crabapples was 

 planted and they were very profitable. 

 Because of the susceptibility of this va- 

 riety to apple or pear blight it is not 

 advisable to plant this variety, and many 

 of those now planted are being removed 

 and replaced with more resistant varie- 

 ties. 



The sweet cherries most planted are 

 Bing and Lambert, with Black Republi- 

 can or Black Tatarian for pollenizers. The 

 sour cherries most generally planted are 

 Early Richmond, English Morello, Late 

 Duke and Montmorency. 



The pears most generally planted are 

 Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Clapp's Favor- 

 ite and Anjou. 



Most varieties of plums and prunes 

 grow well ana produce abundantly, but 

 because of market conditions are not 

 grown in commercial quantities. There 

 are no drying or evaporating plants in 

 the valley and a restricted market pre- 

 vails for all tender fruits. 



Strawberries and bush fruits grow in 

 great profusion and are profitable com- 

 mercial crops. 



Because of winter weather conditions 

 almost all trees are planted in the spring 

 on land that has been plowed the pre- 

 vious fall or in the early spring. The 

 planting season usually begins by March 

 15 and may be continued until as late as 

 May 1, although the early planting is rec- 



