IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 309 



was quite otherwise with the American settlers for 

 they roamed the State from end to end and from 

 side to side almost as soon as they entered it. 



Coming from Spain by way of Mexico, the padres 

 brought the idea that irrigation was necessary for the 

 trees and vines they wished to grow. They soon saw 

 that annual grains and forage plants could be grown 

 by rainfall almost everywhere throughout their pos- 

 sessions, but they held to the idea that trees, vines 

 and plants which continued growth into the dry sea- 

 son must be grown on ditch-banks. The early Ameri- 

 cans visited the missions but did not embrace their 

 irrigation doctrine. They remembered their experi- 

 ence in carrying corn through midsummer droughts 

 of the Middle West and eastward by hoe and culti- 

 vator and they began almost at once to apply this 

 teaching to California conditions. They soon demon- 

 strated by the behavior of the plants that applications 

 of water were not needed as frequently as the mission 

 farmers made them. They used less water and more 

 surface stirring until they discovered that plants 

 which made their chief growth in the warm, moist, 

 winter weather and those which rooted deeply like 

 fruit-trees and vines, even though they had to grow 

 all through the dry summer, could reach satisfactory 

 production without any artificial application of wa- 

 ter, if the normal rainfall was adequate and the soil 

 retentive enough naturally and sufficiently culti- 

 vated during the growth of the plant. This was the 

 first demonstration in the semi-arid region of the 

 principles which are now the chief asset of the dry- 



