MAIN LIBRARY-, 'SHICUl.TURE DEFT. 





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Roeding's Fruit Growers* Guide 



BEGINNING RIGHT 



Fruit growing is a business, pure and simple. It had 

 a very important bearing on our winning the war. The 

 purchases of dried fruits in California alone, exclusive 

 of canned goods for the men who were at the front, 

 aggregated .$25,000,000 of the crop of 1918. Vegetables, 

 canned and dried, formed another very important ad- 

 junct in the diet of our men, and the purchases ran up 

 to millions of dollars. Intensity in farming operations 

 is being encouraged now more than ever before. A 

 man who planted fruit trees and intercropped with 

 vegetables during the period of the war certainly 

 fulfilled his obligation to the Government. He not only 

 provided for the future when he planted his orchard, 

 and increased the value of his land, but in addition to 

 this he was encouraged to go to the expense of install- 

 ing a pumping plant for developing water, building 

 ditches and, where necessary, cement pipe lines, with 

 much more care and thoroughness than he would have 

 done were he devoting his attention merely to the 

 raising of vegetables alone. It is becoming more and 

 more apparent in these days that a fruit grower should 

 specialize. This does not mean that a man living on a 

 farm should not have a small orchard, berries, vege- 

 tables, alfalfa, a cow, poultry and hogs. It is being 

 demonstrated, however, that with our diversified cli- 

 mates and soils certain localities are better adapted to 

 one variety of fruit than another. This point should 

 never be lost sight of. There is far too great a tendency 

 on the part of many people to* plant the fruit which 

 has been bringing the highest prices for several seasons, 

 utterly disregarding the fact that both soil and climate 

 may not be conducive to make the venture a success. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 



It is of the utmost importance that the land be put 

 in first-class condition to receive the trees. Too great 

 an emphasis cannot be laid on this one point. The 

 subject is worthy of careful analysis. If the orchard is 

 to be planted where irrigating is to be practised, careful 

 attention must be given to grading so as to permit the 

 water to run in furrows or to be properly distributed in 

 checks around each tree to be irrigated. When scraping 

 the land great care should be exercised not to remove 

 the surface of the soil to too great a depth, for where 

 this is done it causes the trees to grow poorly and neither 

 thorough cultivation nor irrigation will overcome this 

 trouble for years to come. Where it is necessary to take 

 off the surface soil to a foot or more in order to permit 

 a high piece of land to be irrigated it is far better, to 

 pump the water to the higher elevation and distribute 

 it in this manner. In other words, in preparing land 

 which is to be irrigated, bear in mind that every point 

 of the field should be graded, not leveled, to permit 

 every foot of it to be covered with water. Nothing will 

 do so much to promote the success of an undertaking as 



to commence the work of leveling, plowing, and the instal- 

 lation of the irrigating system early in the fall months. 

 One point I want to be very emphatic on and that is, 

 do not attempt to plant trees and vines on a commercial 

 scale, where irrigation is to be practised, without know- 

 ing where the supply of water is to come from. If the 

 water is to be supplied by a canal system, have the 

 main and lateral ditches large enough to carry a suffi- 

 cient volume of water to permit the irrigating of the land 

 as expeditiously as possible. Many people make the 

 mistake, where they do not understand engineering, of 

 attempting to do the work themselves without any ex- 

 pert advice, thus causing themselves an endless amount 

 of trouble through the fact that their ditches are not 

 properly located, the banks not having sufficient slope 

 and, in many instances, caving in. It is important to 

 have the weirs, where there happens to be a heavy fall 

 in a ditch, properly located to prevent washing of the 

 banks. Where a cement pipe system is to be installed, 

 even greater care must be exercised to have the pipe 

 lines on a grade and the stand-pipes properly located 

 to get the best results. The diameter of the pipe is de- 

 termined by the volume of water to be carried and by 

 the fall it has. Far better to err on the part of having 

 the pipe system too large than to make the mistake of 

 having it-too small aad not be in a position to convey 

 the quantity of water which is available to the trees. 

 If the water is to be pumped the engineer should deter- 

 mine the location of the plant and see to it that it is 

 large enough to provide the necessary water for the 

 piece of land to be irrigated. An engineer is an impor- 

 tant factor in a case like this and his charges for services 

 rendered will be many times repaid in having the plant 

 installed in such a manner as to secure a maximum of 

 efficiency at a minimum of expense. There is probably 

 no other institution in the world which has more reliable 

 and authentic data on the installation of irrigating sys- 

 tems or, for that matter, any other subject pertaining 

 to agricultural and horticultural work, than the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. Bulletins may be 

 obtained therefrom at from five to ten rents each on 

 any subject pertaining to farming operations by writing 

 to the Division of Publications, Washington, D. C. 

 After all the details relative to the irrigating of the land 

 to be improved have been carefully considered, its 

 preparation for planting is the next step in line. Deep 

 plowing and particularly subsoiling will do much to 

 promote the rapid growth of trees and vines. It may 

 not be practical during the fall months to plow deeply, 

 due to lack of rain. However, if possible after the 

 leveling is finished, plow the land and finish with a 

 buck-scraper. The Fresno scraper is probably the 

 best all-around implement for rough grading, but for 

 the finer work, filling up small holes and for smoothing, 

 there is nothing like the first-named tool. Shallow 

 plowing should always be done when conditions are 



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