BETTER FRUIT 



A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST 

 OF MODERN AND PROGRESSIVE FRUIT GROWING AND MARKETING 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF IRRIGATING ORCHARDS 



BY SAMUEL FORTIER, CHIEF OF IRRIGATION INVESTIGATION, EXPERIMENTAL STATION, 



CARE and good judgment should be 

 exercised in the selection of an 

 orchard tract. If it turns out well 

 the profits are high, but if it fails the 

 losses are heavy. It involves the setting 

 aside of good land, the use of irrigation 

 water, and somewhat heavy expense in 

 purchasing trees, setting them out and 

 caring for them until they begin to bear. 



Assuming that the climate and soil of 

 the district selected are adapted to the 

 kind of trees to be grown, the next 

 important things to consider are good 

 drainage and freedom from early and 

 late frosts. Low-lying lands under a new 

 irrigation system should be regarded 

 with suspicion, even if the sub-soil be 

 quite dry at the time of planting. The 

 results of a few years of heavy and care- 

 less irrigation on the higher lands adja- 

 cent may render the low lands unfit for 

 orchards. On the other hand, the higher 

 lands are not always well drained nat- 

 urally. A bank of clay extending across 

 a slope may intercept percolating water 

 and raise it near the surface. Favored 

 locations for orchards in the mountain 

 states are often found in the narrow river 

 valleys at the mouths of canyons. The 

 coarse soil of these deltas, the steep 

 slopes and the daily occurrence of winds, 

 which blow first out of the canyons and 

 then back into them, afford excellent 

 conditions for the production of highly 

 flavored fruits at the minimum risk of 

 being injured by frost. 



Proper exposure is another important 

 factor. In the warmer regions of the 

 West and Southwest a northern exposure 

 is sometimes best, but as a rule the 

 orchards of the West require warmth 

 and sunshine, and a southerly exposure 

 is usually most desirable. Natural bar- 

 riers frequently intercept the sweep of 

 cold, destructive winds, and when these 

 are lacking wind-breaks may be planted 

 to serve the same purpose. Depressions 

 or sheltered coves should be avoided if 

 the cold air has a tendency to collect in 

 them, a free circulation of air being 

 necessary to drive away frost. The low- 

 lying lands seem to be the most subject 

 to cold, stagnant air. 



While experience has shown that the 

 orchard trees of nearly all kinds can be 

 successfully grown on soils that dififer 

 widely in their mechanical and chemical 

 composition it has also shown that cer- 

 tain types of soils are best adapted to 

 particular kinds of trees. Thus the best 

 peach, almond, apricot and olive orchards 

 of the West are found on the lighter or 

 sandier loams; tlie best apple, cherry and 

 pear oi'diards on heavier loams, while 



walnut, prune and orange orchards do 

 best on medium grades of soil. The 

 requirements of all, however, are a deep, 

 rich and well drained soil. 



Formerly most Western orchards were 

 supplied with water through earthen 

 ditches. These leaky, unsightly channels, 

 by reason of their cheapness, would have 

 been qttite generally retained had it not 

 been for the increasing value and scarcity 

 of water. The value of water for irriga- 

 tion purposes has increased beyond the 

 average of that given by the census 

 report of 1902 over 300 per cent. In 

 many localities there is likewise great 



Contents 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF IRRIGATING 

 ORCHARDS, 19 



SELECTING AND IRRIGATING 

 ORCHARDS, 29 



BEST METHOD OF APPLYING 

 WATER TO CROPS, 32 



MOST PROFITABLE USE OF OUR 

 WATER SUPPLY, 37 



ROOT DISEASES CAUSED BY 

 ARMILLARIA MELLA, 41 



EDITORIAL, 48 



CENTRAL SELLING AGENCY FOR 

 NORTHWEST FRUITS, 48 



GROWING BLACKBERRIES AND 

 RASPBERRIES, 54 



HISTORY OF SPRAYING IN 

 PAJORA VALLEY. 65 



scarcity at certain times. These rapidly 

 changing conditions have induced many 

 water companies to save some of their 

 heavy losses in conveying water supplies 

 by substituting 'pipes for open ditches in 

 earth, or else by making the ditches 

 water tight by an impervious lining. 



The high value and scarcity of the 

 water in natural streams have likewise 

 induced orchardists to install pumping 

 plants to raise water from underground 

 sources. It was estimated that in 1909 

 20,000 of these plants were in operation 

 in California alone. In other parts of 

 the West reservoirs are being built to 

 supplement the late summer flow of 

 streams which fail to provide enough 

 water for all. 



The few typical examples which fol- 

 low may not only give the reader an 

 idea of how orchards are supplied with 

 water, but also indicate the customary 

 division into tracts to serve this and 

 other purposes. 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The Lewiston Basin is located where 

 Clearwater River flows into the Snake 

 River in Western Idaho, and varies from 

 700 to 1,900 feet above sea level. A few 

 years ago water was brought from neigh- 

 boring creeks and stored in a reservoir. 

 The water required for orchard irrigation 

 is conducted from this reservoir under 

 pressure in two lines of redwood stave 

 pipes over the rolling hills which sep- 

 arate the reservoir from the orchard 

 lands. On these lands contour lines 

 were first established, and each quarter 

 section was afterwards divided into forty- 

 acre tracts by sixty-foot streets. These 

 were further subdivided into eight five- 

 acre tracts, with a twenty-foot alley 

 through the center. Figure 1, showing 

 block 28 of the survey, indicates the gen- 

 eral arrangement. The large conduits 

 from the reservoir are connected to 

 smaller lateral pipes laid in the alleys, 

 and these in turn are tapped by three- 

 inch pipes, which furnish water to the 

 five-acre tracts. 



The town of Corona, California, is 

 hemmed in on all sides by lemon and 

 orange orchards. The chief water sup- 

 ply for these groves comes from Ferris 

 Basin, forty miles distant. The Temescal 

 Water Company owns 3,600 acres of 

 water-bearing lands in this basin, and at 

 favorable points pumping plants have 

 been installed. These plants are oper- 

 ated by motors supplied with current 

 from a central generating station located 

 at Ethenac. The discharge from each 

 pump is measured over a rectangular 

 wier having an automatic register. This 

 device is shown in Figure 2. Small lined 

 channels convey the water from the 

 pumps to the main conduit, shown in 

 cross-section in Figure 3. The concrete 

 lining of this conduit is composed of one 

 part cement to seven parts sand and 

 gravel, having a thickness on the slopes 

 of two and one-half inches and on the 

 bottom of three to four inches. The 

 lining is rendered still more impervious 

 by the addition of a plaster coat one- 

 fourth of an inch in thickness, composed 

 of one part of cement to two parts of 

 sand. The cost was five and one-half 

 cents per square foot, or fifty-five cents 

 per linear foot. The main conduit con- 

 sists of about thirty miles of lined canal 

 and ten miles of piping thirty inches in 

 diameter. The groves are laid out as a 

 rule in ten-acre tracts, and piping of 

 various kinds conveys the water from the 

 main to the highest point of each tract, 

 from which it is distributed between the 

 rows in furrows. 



