256 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



Courtesy Bureau of Soils, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

 DRIFTED SAND ALONG A WINDBREAK SHOWING WASTE OF GROUND. 



practice this winter irrigation before the 

 crop is put into the ground use furrow 

 irrigation about the first of July, when 

 the bushes are of a fair size ; but this 

 method is expensive on account of the 

 extra labor in furrowing and cultivation, 

 though it is of great value in the areas 

 of light, loose soil, which could not hold 

 the winter application for a great length 

 of time. 



The presence of moisture in the soil 

 Is a prime factor in the marketing of 

 the beans, as it is the practice of the 

 buyers to send their agents through the 

 fields to bid on the crop, the bid being 

 determined almost entirely on the ques- 

 tion as to whether there is enough moist- 

 ure present in the soil to properly ma- 

 ture the crop. Part of the valley is 

 given up to the ordinary white navy 

 bean and the black-eyed bean, both of 

 which mature earlier and are better able 

 to withstand drouth. 



The other principal crops of the val- 



ley are the sugar beet, deciduous fruits, 

 English walnuts, and barley. The beet 

 is the most important next to the bean, 

 but its introduction came within the 

 past five years and followed the estab- 

 lishment of the Oxnard sugar factory, 

 at Oxnard. The beet is irrigated in 

 practically the same manner as the bean 

 and produces a good crop, but has the 

 disadvantage of impoverishing the soil 

 when rotation is not practiced. 



It must be admitted, however, that 

 irrigation in this valley is not what it 

 should be when the natural advantages 

 are considered. No other county in the 

 southern semi-arid portion of California 

 is so well supplied with water as Ven- 

 tura. The Ventura and Santa Clara 

 Rivers, with their tributaries, drain a 

 great area of mountainous country, and 

 in the winter are torrents, carrying off 

 the major part of the rainfall immedi- 

 ately, since the mountains are water- 

 washed and gullied and for the most 



