168 When Irrigation is Needed. 
Of course it is not commended as a rule of practise that 
the grower wait until the tree shows signs of distress before 
applying water. This is a very bad plan of proceeding, but the 
visible language of the tree is mentioned as indicating once that 
the tree needs help, either at regular intervals or occasionally, 
and after such a warning the grower should be able to tell by 
examination of the soil and by study of the local rainfall record 
when this need will occur, and apply his water in advance of the 
need. 
Recent experience has enabled fruit growers in all parts of 
California to arrive at a truer conception of the relation of irriga- 
tion to the growth of fruits. Many who have long scouted the 
suggestion that irrigation was necessary for deciduous fruit trees 
in their districts, have during the last few years found that water, 
in addition to the rainfall, was very profitable, either to enable 
large, bearing trees to produce larger fruit, or to maintain in full 
vigor their later summer growth and to make strong fruit buds, 
which ensure the following year’s production. It has also been 
widely demonstrated that a tree which is adequately supplied 
with water, no matter whether it be directly from the clouds or 
through the irrigating stream, yields fruit of better size, aroma, 
flavor and carrying quality than a tree which, from any cause, 
falls even a little short of an adequate supply. It is clear then 
that neither irrigation nor non-irrigation are in themselves prin- 
ciples, but are merely methods to be employed when conditions 
demand the one or the other. 
The fact that water is sometimes used to excess, and the 
fruit thus grown is found to be lacking in using and carrying 
qualities, militates not against irrigation, but against the igno- 
rance or carelessness of the grower. It has been clearly shown 
by the experience of our fruit-shippers and canners that wisely- 
irrigated trees bear fruit admirably suited to their purposes, and 
that if proper size is not attained with the natural rainfall, by 
proper cultivation, pruning, and thinning, irrigation should be 
resorted to. Of course the water should be applied at proper 
times, in proper amount, and in a proper way. 
HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD BE USED? 
This is by its very nature a very elusive question and any 
attempt to answer it by definite prescription is more apt to pro- 
duce folly than wisdom. For as it appears that whether irriga- 
tion is at all needed or not depends upon several conditions 
which must be ascertained in each place, so the amount of water, 
which is really an expression of the degree of that need, depends 
also upon local conditions of rainfall, of soil depth and retentive- 
ness, of rate of waste by evaporation, of the particular thirst of 
cach irrigated crop, etc. The result secured by the use of water 
