172 



CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



(3) The claim that irrigated fruit could not endure shipment 

 was based upon the bruising and collapse of fruit which was 

 unduly inflated by overirrigation. The best fruit for shipping 

 is the perfect fruit and that is secured as just stated. The fact 

 that the greater part of the fresh fruit shipped across the conti- 

 nent from California has been more or less irrigated, according 

 to the needs of different localities, has settled the point beyond 

 further controversy. 



(4) The claim that canners objected to irrigated fruit was 

 based upon the early experience with overirrigated fruit, which 

 lacked quality and consistency. At present the canners encourage 

 irrigation and all other arts of growing which bring the product 

 up to the standards they insist upon. 



(5) The claim that irrigated fruit is inferior for drying has 

 the same foundation as the preceding claims and is just as clearly 

 based upon misapprehension. Watery fruit is obviously inferior 

 for drying, but such fruit is the fault of the irrigator, not of irri- 

 gation. One of the plainest deductions from experience is that 

 small, tough fruit makes unprofitable dried fruit, and that the 

 best development of the fruit is essential to the best results from 

 drying. Many comparative weighings have shown that the great- 

 est yield .in dried form has been secured from trees which have 

 had water enough to produce good, large fruit. Even to bear 

 fruit for drying, then, the tree must have moisture enough to 

 develop size and quality. If lacking moisture, the tree serves its 

 own purpose in developing pit and skin and reduces the pulp, 

 in which lie the desirability and value of dried fruits. 



Of course the water should be applied at proper times, in 

 proper amount, and in a proper way. 



HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD BE USED? 



This is by its very nature an elusive question and any attempt 

 to answer it by a definite prescription is more apt to produce folly 

 than wisdom. For as it appears that whether irrigation is at all 

 needed or not depends upon several conditions which must be 

 ascertained in each place, so the amount of water, which is really 

 an expression of the degree of that need, depends also upon local 

 conditions of rainfall, of soil depth and retentiveness, of 

 rate of waste by evaporation, of the particular thirst of 

 each irrigated crop, etc. The result secured by the use 

 of water is really the ultimate measure of the duty of water in 

 each instance. In the case of fruit trees and vines, then, what- 

 ever amount of water secures thrifty and adequate wood growth 

 and strong, good-colored foliage, but not excessive or rank growth ; 

 and abundance of good-sized and rich, but not monstrous and 

 watery, fruit, is the proper amount for that place and that product, 





