Page 24 



BETTER FRUn 



April 



the depth is regulated by the lever arm 

 of the cultivator. 



In the Payette Valley, Idaho, 200 or 

 more miner's inches are turned into the 

 head ditch and divided up by means of 

 wooden spouts into a like number of 

 furrows. On steep ground much smaller 

 streams are used. The length of the fur- 

 row varies from 300 feet on steep slopes 

 to 600 feet and more on flat slopes. The 

 time required to moisten the soil depends 

 on the length of the furrow and the 

 nature of the soil. In this locality it 

 varies from three to thirty-six hours. 



J. H. Foreman owns twenty acres of 

 bearing orchard under the Sunnyside 

 canal in the Yakima Valley, Washington, 

 and waters it four times in each season 

 with fourteen miner's inches (0.35 cubic 

 feet per second). He makes three fur- 

 rows between the rows, which are forty 

 rods long. The total supply is applied 

 to one-half the orchard (ten acres) and 

 kept on forty-eight hours. 



On the clayey loams of the apple 

 orchards on the east bench of the Bitter 

 Root River, Montana, Professor R. W. 

 Fisher has found, as a result of experi- 



FiGURE 11— SECTION OF WOODEN HEAD FLUME 

 SHOWING OPENING AND GATE 



menting, that it requires from twelve to 

 eighteen hours to moisten the soil in 

 furrow irrigation four feet deep and three 

 feet sideways. 



In 1908 Mr. Struck, of Hood River, 

 Oregon, irrigated three acres of apple 

 trees in furrows 350 feet long, spaced 

 three feet apart. About a miner's inch of 

 water was turned into each alternate fur- 

 row from a wooden head flume, Figure 

 11, and kept on for about forty-eight 

 hours. After the soil had become suffi- 

 ciently dry it was cultivated, and in eight 

 or ten days thereafter water was turned 

 into the alternate rows, which were left 

 dry during the first irrigation. 



For the most part the furrows are 

 made parallel to the rows of trees. An 

 arrangement of this kind is satisfactory 

 in young orchards, but as the trees reach 

 maturity their branches occupy more of 

 the open space between the rows and 

 prevent the making of furrows near the 

 trees. This is shown in Figure 19, where 

 a space of six to twelve feet square, 

 according to the size of the trees, is not 

 furrowed. This space usually becomes 

 so dry that it is worthless as a feeding 

 ground for roots. In order to moisten 

 these dry spots a larger stream is often 



carried in the two furrows next to each 

 row of trees and the surplus is led across 

 in short furrows in the manner shown in 

 Figure 20. Instead of continuing straight 

 and cross furrows, as is done in Figure 

 20, use is frequently made of diagonal 

 furrows. Figure 21, to moisten the dry 

 space between the trees. This last 

 method is best adapted to grades of five 

 inches to the one hundred feet or more. 



A method and the cost of one irriga- 

 tion is described as follows: 



The implement used to make furrows 

 consists of three shovels attached to a 

 beam which is mounted on a pair of low 

 wheels. The driver sits on a riding seat, 

 and by operating a lever can regulate the 

 depth of the furrows. A man and two 

 horses will furrow out ten acres in a day. 

 For a distance of 150 feet from the top 

 of the orchard the furrows are straight. 

 They are then zigzagged to within sixty 

 or seventy feet of the bottom, where the 

 last three rows of trees are irrigated by 

 basins which catch the surplus. In the 

 case described the depth of furrow was 

 six inches, length 800 feet and distance 

 apart three feet. A head of fifty miner's 

 inches (one cubic foot per second) was 

 used on ten acres. The streams when 

 first turned into the furrows averaged 

 about two miner's inches, but as the 

 water approached the lower end they 

 were reduced to one miner's inch or less, 

 and this flow was run in each furrow for 

 twelve to twenty-four hours. 



The items of cost for ten acres were: 

 Making furrows and basins, $6.50; irri- 

 gating, $3; fifty inches of water twenty- 

 four hours at forty cents an hour, $9.60; 

 rent of water stock, $12; a total of $31.10. 



Orchards are sometimes irrigated by 

 first forming ridges midway between the 

 rows in two directions at right angles 

 to each other. This divides up the tract 

 into a large number of squares with a 

 tree in the center of each, as may be 

 observed in Figure 22. 



When the ground is hard or covered 

 with weeds a disk plow is first run 

 between the rows and then the loosened 

 earth is formed into a ridge by a ridger. 

 If the soil is light, sandy and free from 

 weeds the disking is not necessary. 

 Ridgers are made in various ways of 

 both wood and steel, or some combina- 

 tion of both. A common kind is shown 

 in Figure 23. It consists of two deep 

 runners fourteen to eighteen inches 

 high, two inches thick and six to eight 

 feet long. These runners are shod with 

 steel, which extends part way up the 



Figure 12— THE USE OF LOW CHECK IN 

 HEAD FLUME 



inner side. They are four to five feet 

 apart at the front end and tapered to six- 

 teen to twenty-four inches at the rear. 

 The runners are held in position by 

 cross pieces on top, a floor and straps of 

 steel in the manner shown. The height 

 of the ridges varies with the depth of 

 water applied, which is from four to nine 

 inches. The ridges should be several 

 inches above the surface of the water 

 when a basin is flooded. 



Several methods of flooding basins are 

 practiced. In one a ditch is run from 

 the supply ditch at the head through each 

 alternate row space, and the basins on 

 each side are flooded in pairs, beginning 

 with the lowest. This plan is shown in 

 outline in Figure 22. In the other 

 method water is allowed to flow through 

 openings into each basin of a tier in a 

 zigzag course from the top to the bottom 

 of the orchard. In this plan the upper 

 basins receive the most water. Under 

 gravity canals, where water is abundant, 

 the water is turned into the upper basin 

 until it is full, when it overflows into the 

 next, and so on down the tier. The irri- 

 gator then begins at the lower end and 

 repairs the breaks, leaving each basin 

 full of water. 



Where this method is practiced it fre- 

 quently happens that land on which 

 alfalfa has been grown is planted to fruit 

 trees. In plowing down the alfalfa and 

 setting out the trees the levees undergo 

 little change, and the checks can be 

 flooded if it is considered best. A better 

 plan is to furrow the floor of each check, 

 as shown in Figure 24. The water is 

 admitted through the check box which 

 was used for the alfalfa and conducted 

 into a short head ditch, from which it is 

 distributed to the furrows. The chief 



Figure 13— COMMON SIZES OF CONCRETE HEAD FLUMES 



