186 Drainage and Irrigation. 
water, makes the soil dry out completely under the fervid sun 
of summer, and the result is that the wettest soil of the winter 
is the driest in the summer, and plants which are injured by 
soaking in winter suffer again from lack of moisture and sus- 
tenance in summer: Thus it is a fact, clearly proven by obser- 
vation and experience, that thorough under-drainage removes 
surplus water in winter, and ministers to the retention of mois- 
ture in summer. More than this, a soil puddled by standing 
water can not present its contents in available form for plant nu- 
trition, and besides, it loses the fertilizing effects of atmospheric 
currents, which freely pass through an open, well-drained soil. 
Wet land is cold and late in spring, and hot as a baked brick 
under the summer sun; it is no fiction of the imagination to 
say that well-drained land is warm in wiuter and cool in sum- 
mer—that is, cool to a degree which favors quick and free root 
growth, and cool enough to escape the parching effect of deeply- 
baked soil. 
These, and a host of simular considerations, which have 
made under-drainage popular in older countries, are of weight 
in California. Possibly, as a rule, because of our vast area of 
deep, kind loams, the proportion of land needing drainage in 
this State is less than elsewhere, and yet there is a vast extent 
of country to be improved by tiling. During the last few years - 
there have been large losses of trees from planting upon soils 
defective in this respect. The evil has resulted from excessive. 
rainfall and excessive irrigation, either direct or by underflow 
from adjacent irrigations. In some places this latter movement 
of water has brought alkali to assist in the ruin of the trees and 
vines. The cure is drainage to sufficient depth and with good 
outlet for the drainage water. 
Information on the construction of under-drains is too avail- 
able through other sources to cail for its presentation in this 
connection. 
Drainage and Irrigation.—A special importance attaches to 
complete and systematic drainage in connection with irrigation. ° 
There is pressing need of such provision where the soil has be- 
come overloaded by seepage water from irrigation ditches, and 
it is well that people in such situations are waking up to the 
need of coupling drainage outlets with their irrigation inlets. 
Another matter closely allied to this is the action of alkali on 
soils thus artificially water soaked. This has been made the 
sttbject of a special publication by Professor Hilgard, to which 
allusion has already been made. Drainage is plainly essential, 
hoth in individual farms and in districts where the water level 
is rising too high, ana the striking statements given in Professor 
Hilgard’s report will incite all to insist that immediate attention 
be given to the needs of the State in this regard. 
