CHAPTER XV 



IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE 



In Western orchards the irrigation movement has made rapid 

 progress, but the East has been very slow to adopt this practice 

 — perhaps because the need there is not so great. However, 

 some practical experiments along this line have recently been 

 carried on in the Eastern states, and it is hoped that reports of 

 these will be forthcoming later. 



Water supplies for orchards. 1 Formerly most Western orchards 

 were supplied with water through earthen ditches. These leaky, 

 unsightly channels, by reason of their cheapness, would have been 

 quite generally retained had it not been for the increasing value 

 and scarcity of water. The average value of water for irrigation 

 purposes has increased over 300 per cent since the census report 

 of 1902, and in many localities there is even a great scarcity at 

 certain times. These conditions have induced many water com- 

 panies to prevent the heavy losses made in transmission, by substi- 

 tuting pipes for open ditches of earth or by making the ditches 

 water-tight by an impervious lining. 



The scarcity of water in natural streams has likewise induced 

 orchardists to install pumping plants to raise water from under- 

 ground sources. It was estimated that in 1909 twenty thousand 

 of these plants were in operation in California alone. In other 

 parts of the West reservoirs are being built to supplement the 

 late-summer flow of streams which fail to provide enough water. 



The few typical examples which follow will give the reader 

 an idea of how orchards are supplied with water, and also of the 

 customary manner of dividing land into tracts for irrigation and 

 other purposes. 



The Lewiston basin, western Idaho, is located where Clearwater 

 River flows into Snake River, and varies from 700 to 1900 feet 



1 Adapted from Farmers' Bulletin No. 404, United States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



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