﻿BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 10 



Contribution from Office of Experiment Stations, A. C. True, Director 

 October 30, 1913. 



PROGRESS REPORT OF COOPERATIVE IRRIGATION 

 EXPERIMENTS AT CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY 

 FARM, DAVIS, CAL., 1909-1912. 



By S. II. Beckett, 

 Irrigation Engineer. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The* experiments herein described were planned a*nd carried out for 

 the purpose of determining the water requirements of various stand- 

 ard crops. For the purpose a tract of 25 acres on the University farm 

 at Davis was set aside by the college of agriculture. The work was 

 planned and carried on by the irrigation investigations of the Office 

 of Experiment Stations, in cooperation with the department of en- 

 gineering of the State of California, the California Experiment Sta- 

 tion furnishing seed and a part of the labor in return for the crops. 



The University farm, comprising 779 acres, lies one-half mile west 

 of the town of Davis. The soil, which is typical of that of a great 

 portion of the Sacramento Valley, is classed as Yolo loam, described 

 by the Bureau of Soils of this department, as follows : 



The surface soil of the Yolo loam consists of a dark-brown loam of light to 

 rather heavy texture. The soil is usually free from gravel. Below a depth of 

 24 inches the subsoil is generally made up of strata of silty loam or sandy loam. 

 At greater depths this rests on clay loam or clay. * * * 



Owing to the excellent drainage and comparatively open texture of this type 

 it has proved to be well adapted to fruit, including peaches, almonds, prunes, 

 and grapes. * * * While irrigation has not been in general use, it has 

 been found to be beneficial to the tree and fruit where the lower strata of the 

 soil lack the close texture and compactness necessary for the retention of mois- 

 ture. It is one of the best general-purpose soils in the region and is adapted to 

 a wide range of crops. 1 



The mean annual rainfall, although slightly below the average for 

 the Sacramento Valley as a whole, amounts to 16.54 inches, the 

 greater part of which comes in December, January, February, and 

 March, while from May to October very little rain falls. A mean 

 temperature of 77.9° F. is recorded for the month of July, the mean 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Soils, Field Operations 1900, Eleventh Report, pp. 1657, 1658. 

 6137°— Bull. 10—13 1 



