CITRUS TREES AND THEIR DISEASES 17 



twice would be better, during the summer period. 

 Lack of moisture under the trees is one of the greatest 

 drawbacks; this applies especially to trees which are 

 from twenty to thirty years old. With old trees the 

 spread is very great and the irrigation ditch being so 

 far away from the body of the tree, it would be profit- 

 able to the grower if he would make a cross trench 

 from his irrigation ditches to the trunk of the tree, 

 and let the water run into the basin as described above. 

 A small amount of water during June, July and August 

 irrigations, as these months would consume moisture 

 better than any other three months during the year. 



One of the bad features that the citrus tree must 

 contend with in Southern California is the temperature 

 of the water used from wells and running through 

 pipes without sufficient amount of sunlight and air. 

 To remove the cold temperature and the shocking 

 nature of the cold water on the trees, I foresee 

 the time coming when the foothill water will be of 

 great value. 



When a foothill canal has been excavated, all the 

 mountain water will be retained in this canal until it 

 has abundance of air and sunlight before being used 

 for irrigation purposes and by this means another 

 great value will be added to the growers, retaining 

 this surplus water and preventing it from overflowing, 

 which has done so much damage by filling in new soil. 



I have visited groves where there has been more 

 than a foot of soil filled in after the planting of the tree. 

 In all of these instances, in a very few years, you be- 

 gan to see your trees deteriorate and diseases develop, 



