OUR CROPS 65 



' scalded ' trees tell a .tale of slovenly irriga- 

 tion ; that is to say, in the majority of in- 

 stances he still prefers to flood his orchard 

 with water rather than go to the trouble of 

 ploughing furrows on either side the trees, 

 in order that the water may sink to the roots 

 and may not touch the trunks, the effect of 

 water upon tree-trunks in combination with 

 a hot sun being disastrous. The lazy Mexi- 

 can and, to put it mildly, he is often lazy 

 considers such precautions in the light of 

 misplaced energy. By the same token, 

 when the time comes for cultivating, he 

 floods again. As for inducing a native to 

 keep down the weeds in a piece of land that 

 does not happen to be cropped well, then in 

 very truth you may brace yourself for a tug- 

 of-war. That the noxious and growing- 

 apace weed of the Territory propagates itself 

 from seed does not seem to occur to him. 

 That there are progressive Mexicans and 

 unprogressive Americans may be taken for 

 granted, the latter vastly more numerous 

 than the former. The often unavailing 

 efforts to induce some fruit-growers to take 

 measures for the extirpation of the insect 



5 



