14 Fruitgrowing under Irrigation 



plants have had sufficient. The great advantage of 

 this method of watering is that it can be used upon 

 land that is too steep to grade into level checks, 

 'except at enormous expense, and that the water, 

 being confined to the furrows, does not flow over 

 the land and consolidate the surface. The disadvan- 

 tage of this system is that the first plant of a row 

 must necessarily get more water than the last one, 

 and for that reason the rows should be so laid out 

 that the water does not take too long to reach the 

 end. 



LAYING OUT THE LAND FOR WATERING. 



For the best results to be obtained from the 

 irrigation of a piece of land it is necessary that the 

 land should be correctly laid out for watering from 

 the start. This will greatly depend upon the nature 

 and contour of the land and the kind of crop it is 

 intended to grow. 



IRRIGATION CHANNELS. 



Let us first consider the watering of fruit trees, 

 which are usually watered by the furrow system. 

 After the land has been cleared and graded it is 

 necessary that the irrigation channels are put down, 

 from which the land is to be watered. Where the 

 soil is of a loose, sandy nature, the irrigation chan- 

 nels are usually made of lime concrete; but where 

 the land is hard and level, earth ditches are often 

 successfully used. 



CEMENT PIPING. 



Irrigation by means of reinforced cement piping 

 instead of the usual open lime concrete channels is 

 one of the latest products of irrigation development. 

 The chief advantages claimed for cement piping are 

 their great strength and durability, their great re- 



