196 



CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Systematic Distribution of Water on Hillsides. The common 

 method of carrying water in pipes to the various high points of 

 several slopes or "irrigation faces" from which it can be admitted 

 to large furrows crossing or descending those faces is open to 

 some difficulties and disarrangements. P. W. Butler, of Penryn, 



Zigzag ditches. 



Large furrow system on hillsides with zigzag ditches for distribution, catchment, 



and redistribution. 



has had in successful operation for several years a system oT zig- 

 zag ditches for carrying and distributing and for catching outflow 

 and redistributing on a lower face. This is also a system which 

 makes ditches and furrows but once a year and dispenses with 

 summer cultivation. Mr. Butler's account, as illustrated by the 

 accompanying diagrams, is as follows : 



The amount of water generally used in this section for the irrigation of 

 deciduous fruit trees is 1 inch to 5 acres of orchard (miner's inch under 6- 

 inch pressure), and is applied to each row of trees by one stream of water 

 of sufficient quantity to just reach the end of the row. Much of the water 

 is thus wasted because of inability to properly adjust its distribution. It is 

 usually run twenty-four hours, then changed to other parts of the orchard 

 until the whole is covered, which takes about three weeks' time, when the 

 process is repeated, continuing throughout the summer, or from May 1 until 

 October 1. There is no cultivation in the meantime, and at each irrigation 

 the water is run in the same ditches. This system is followed in nearly all 

 the orchards of Penryn and vicinity, some on quite steep hillsides, which 

 suffer when the water is thus applied. I have never liked this method, and 

 for many years have used a different system in irrigating all orchards over 

 which I have had control. In my home orchard I have a reservoir on the 

 highest land, from which water can be conveyed as desired to every part. 





