48 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



fill these basins as often as required to carry an orchard through 

 our dry seasons. By mulching these basins from four to six 

 inches in depth, with half-rotted straw, a very small amount of 

 water and labor will suffice to keep the trees in a continuous 

 growing and healthy condition. When the rains begin in the 

 fall, this mulch is plowed into the soil, making an excellent fer- 

 tilizer. The ground is leveled and kept so during the rainy 

 season. The basins require constructing but once a year. It 

 is really a pleasure to cultivate an orchard managed in this way. 

 There are now in this county experimental orchards of five or 

 ten acres or more, cultivated successfully and cheaply on this 

 plan, where running water is not obtainable, the water being 

 drawn into tanks from wells by wind, horse or steam power, and 

 distributed as desired from portable tanks. I am fully convinced 

 that by adopting this system of irrigation, orchards can be suc- 

 cessfully and cheaply raised on our dry mesa lands, where water 

 is not more than seventy feet from the surface." 



P. M. Green's remarks: "The practical use of water in irri- 

 gation, as a factor in the production of crops, the time and man- 

 ner of using the same challenge our most careful consideration. 

 It is a question of much more importance than that of budded 

 or seedling fruits, and transcends even the question of markets 

 and of supply and demand. I believe it is now universally con- 

 ceded that irrigation is a necessity in fruit-growing in this coun- 

 try, and especially to the production of citrus fruits. It is true 

 that the prosperity of Southern California is not wholly depend- 

 ent on irrigation, for abundant crops of many kinds are annually 

 produced without it. It is equally true that those productions 

 which must ever remain its chief boast and the source of its 

 greatest profit, are in a great measure, if not wholly, dependent 

 on irrigation. He who would at this day attempt the growing 

 of an orange orchard without an abundance of the life-giving 

 element, water, with which to carry his trees through the dry 

 season, would be deemed afit subject for a commission to de- 

 termine his lunacy. The running streams, springs and artesian 

 water supply constitute, in fact, the bed-rock of our prosperity 

 as a fruit-growing country; without them our occupation, as 

 fruit-growers, would be 'gone' indeed. While nearly all are 



