FOOT-HILL IRRIGATION 195 



the region to be a good and sufficient reason, it does not militate 

 against the truth of the continuous summer cultivation policy 

 which elsewhere prevails, nor does it follow that this policy would 

 not be better in some respects even in the region where it is 

 abandoned. It is a district of very large water supply, and the 

 arrangements of the water company are such that the grower must 

 pay for a certain number of inches of water by the year and is 

 entitled to this amount of continuous flow. He has to use it or 

 neglect it as it flows, and can not get more at one time by not using 

 it at another. For this reason he has not the motive for close 

 observation which prevails under other conditions, and to escape 

 the cost of summer cultivation and fresh furrowing out he has 

 recourse to frequent flows in the old furrows. The following 

 interesting account of the prevailing method was prepared by Mr: 

 W. R. Fountain, of Newcastle : 



Water is supplied almost exclusively by one company, which has met 

 requirements up to date and seems fixed to supply in excess of demand. It 

 is supplied by the miner's inch; price $45 per inch per season for a constant 

 supply. The inch is measured under 6-inch pressure. 



Beginning May 1st, five months is called the irrigating season, but the 

 purchaser can have the water twelve months per annum if he wants it. The 

 water company collects monthly. The purchaser can not start the season 

 with little and increase at pleasure, except upon payment for the full season on 

 the basis of the largest amount used at any time. 



With this constant supply we use it constantly, piping to high points and 

 moving it from place to place. When no fruit is ripening it is attempted to 

 water a block of trees in twenty-four hours. The water is not checked 

 back, but is run in ditches, mostly in one, but occasionally in two, along each 

 row of trees or vines. When a variety of fruit is ripening more water is 

 given the trees, while after a variety is picked and before any other is nearly 

 ripe the effort is made to water each tree every ten or twelve days. Level 

 land and low spots stand a good chance, as a rule, to get too much water, 

 and a larger stream is used per row to force the water through quickly. Then 

 it is taken off in a shorter time than it would be where the trees are on a 

 side-hill and have good drainage. 



About I inch for each 8 acres is generally used. This is for deciduous 

 fruits. The .citrus fruits and berries require wateririg about once a week; if 

 there is good drainage they would prosper if watered every three days. In 

 such ground I have not heard of their getting either too much water or too 

 much fertilizer. The general practice is to plow, cross plow, and then after 

 each rain cultivate, with no cultivation whatever after beginning the use of 

 water. I think an occasional cultivation after watering would help. 



There is a tendency for the ditches to become packed after water has 

 been flowing through them for some time, in which case but little water 

 soaks into the ground. When this occurs, I dig a pot-hole in the ditch 

 to allow the water to soak in, or else loosen the ground about the trees 

 with a spade and carry the ditch through this loosened ground. I block out 

 my ditches so that I can get my stream through the last tree in about sixteen 

 hours. Where the water has not reached the end of some of the ditches, I 

 turn the water into it from a stream that is flush, and by keeping a man 

 with a hoe constantly with the water, I manage to get it over the field at 

 about 4 p. m. I wet about 350 trees in a block on hillsides; on a flat I wet 

 less, using more water in each stream, and changing it about every twelve 

 hours instead of every twenty-four hours. My trees grow about 130 to an 



