PREFACE 



MOST works on irrigation have been written 

 from the legal or sociological standpoint, or from 

 that of the engineer, rather than from the cul- 

 tural phases of the subject. The effort is made 

 here to present in a broad yet specific way the 

 fundamental principles which underlie the methods 

 of culture by irrigation and drainage. Distinc- 

 tively engineering principles and problems, as such, 

 have been avoided, and so have those of plant 

 husbandry. The aim has been to deal with those 

 relations of water to soils and to plants which 

 must be grasped in order to permit a rational 

 practice of applying, removing or conserving soil 

 moisture . in crop production. The immediately 

 practical problems, from the farmer's, fruit-grower's 

 and gardener's standpoints, with the principles 

 which underlie them, are presented in as con- 

 crete and concise a manner as appears needful 

 to build up a rational practice of irrigation 

 culture and farm drainage ; and the effort has 

 been to broaden the conceptions of general soil 



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