CHAPTER XII 
IRRIGATION 
Sati I buy irrigated or non-irrigated land? Which 
gives the better results? are questions which almost 
every man who contemplates growing fruit in British 
Columbia puts to himself sooner or later. And they 
cause him as much cogitation, maybe more, as does the 
problem as to whether he shall buy improved or un- 
improved fruit land. 
This is a thorny and delicate subject, and no matter 
how you treat it, you are pretty certain to offend one side 
or the other. To avoid friction as far as possible, I will 
confine myself to quoting the opinions of American ex- 
perts, and to citing no facts except such as cannot be 
disputed. In the first place, I will quote two of the fore- 
most horticultural authorities of the American West as 
to the real necessity for artificial irrigation. Professors 
C. I. Lewis and W. H. Wicks, of the State Agricultural 
Experiment Station at Corvallis, Oregon, said, writing on 
‘““ Orchard Management ” in the American journal Better 
Fruit, for December, 1907 (p. 11) : ‘“‘ In certain locations, 
like Rogue River and Hood River, we find just as fine 
fruit grown without irrigation as with it, although cer- 
tain areas doubtless would be benefited by irrigation. . . . 
On moderate heavy loams we find that we can grow 
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