Irrigation 179 



periods. It is also important that these lands lie so that 

 waste water from orchards which may be higher up or 

 nearer the irrigation canal does not continually seep down 

 on to the land at lower levels. 



To go fully into a discussion of alkali and the danger 

 and causes of its appearance would require a book in itself. 

 It is sufficient to state here that too great emphasis cannot 

 be placed on the problem of alkali soil and it is very im- 

 portant that the fruit-growers strive to avoid orchard sites 

 where it is present. Enough is known about the liabilities 

 of soils to seep at the present time so that any engineer 

 or topography expert familiar with the particular region 

 should be able to state quite definitely the relative danger 

 in this regard. Narrow valleys are much less liable to 

 be troubled with alkali than the broader and larger valleys. 

 There is no alkali in the Hood Kiver Valley of Oregon 

 and the Wenatchee Valley of Washington and very little in 

 the Yakima Valley. 



3. The third important point to be remembered in select- 

 ing soil for irrigation is to see that the land can be irrigated 

 economically. In numberless instances, orchards have 

 been set out on land above the main irrigation canal or on 

 land near no canal and dependence put entirely on pump- 

 ing systems or small private irrigation systems. In many 

 cases orchards irrigated in this way have succeeded; 

 however, in most cases irrigation is so expensive and 

 water has so often been difficult to obtain at the proper 

 time, that in years of poor prices or light crops the grower 

 has not been able to compete with orchards under system- 

 atically installed and bonded irrigation systems. In cer- 

 tain limited sections, the annual water rent charge is as 

 high as $25 an acre. This is prohibitive. In most dis- 



