IQII 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 3p 



Figure 15— FURROWER 



But water contracts are but arbitrary 

 assumptions as to the requirements of 

 crops, and where we find that in one 

 district thirty-six to forty inches is the 

 assumed -duty, according to contracts, 

 while in another a few miles away, with 

 conditions still more arid, it is placed at 

 eighteen inches for the season, it is safe 

 to assume that someone's assumptions 

 are inaccurate. If eighteen inches is 

 sufficient, then what a lack of economy 

 there is in supplying thirty-six to forty; 

 while if thirty-six inches of water is nec- 

 essary, those who buy land and expect to 

 succeed with eighteen inches are doomed 

 to disappointment. With water abund- 

 ant, as we have known it in the past, the 

 tendency has been common to over- 

 estimate the quantity needed and to be 

 ultra-liberal in allotting the supply, but 

 with scarcity or the necessity of pumping 

 it at great cost in the none too distant 

 future, there is apt to be a stronger 

 tendency in the opposite direction. Both 

 extremes are opposed to best use, and 

 should be equally guarded against. 



As water contracts and court decrees 

 are not to be considered reliable evidence 

 in judging the amount of water needed, 

 we must have something better as a basis 

 of determination. The only safe guide 

 is accurate scientific information which 

 comes from actual practice. It is not 

 wise to assume a duty appreciably higher 

 than has already been attained. For 

 example, if no one has ever grown a 

 good commercial orchard on less than 

 eighteen inches of water, to attempt it 

 with half or two-thirds of this amount 

 is nothing more than an experiment, and 

 to invest large capital on such an expec- 

 tation is a gamble. Let us see, then, 

 what has been done. 



Records of the water used by the 

 Sunnyside canal system have been kept 

 since 1898. The general duty that year 

 for all lands was 11.4 feet in depth over 

 the surface. In 1906 the general duty 

 was shown to be 6.5 feet, and during the 

 season of 1910 the depth of water 

 received by the land was three feet. The 

 general duty in the Moxee Valley under 

 the Selah-Moxee canal in 1906 was one 

 second foot per 104 acres irrigated, or a 

 depth of 3.48 feet. That same season 

 water was used on the Kennewick gar- 

 den tracts to a depth of 6.31 feet. 



Farmers' bulletin No. 404 of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture states 

 that the most reliable and in many ways 

 the most valuable records pertaining to 

 duty of water on orchards have been 

 obtained from the companies of River- 

 side County, California. Here more or 

 less irrigation water is used every month 



of the year. The average duty for the 

 Riverside Water Company for a period 

 of seven years was 3.3 acre feet, includ- 

 ing rainfall. Dr. Fortier, the author of 

 this bulletin, states that with the same 

 degree of economy here in Washington 

 twenty per cent less, or thirty-two inches, 

 should be sufficient. The lands irrigated 

 by the California company just men- 

 tioned included 6,000 acres of orange 

 orchard and 3,000 acres of alfalfa. Pro- 

 fessor E. J. Wickson, in farmers' bulletin 

 No. 116, states that evergreen fruit trees, 

 including citrus fruits, require about fifty 

 per cent more water than deciduous fruit 

 trees under same conditions, and that 

 with adequate depth and retentiveness of 

 soil twenty inches of rainfall, if duly 

 conserved by good cultivation, may ren- 

 der irrigation unnnecessary for deep- 

 rooting deciduous fruits. In the eastern 

 part of this state we find commercial 

 orchards being grown without irrigation 

 where the annual precipitation is twenty- 

 three inches, about one-fifth of which 

 runs of¥, leaving eighteen inches for the 

 trees. But this amount is insufficient to 

 give yields comparable with those from 

 irrigated orchards, and we know that 

 additional water would be beneficial. 



The water on a twenty-acre apple 

 orchard at Wenatchee ' was measured 

 during the season of 1908, showing that 

 a depth of 23.04 inches was applied 

 between May 13 and September 23. On 

 the same orchard in 1910 twenty-seven 

 inches of water was used, the first irriga- 

 tion being May 30 and the last Septem- 

 ber 12. To this amount in each year 

 should be added the rainfall to the extent 

 of possibly six inches, making a total of 

 twenty-nine inches for 1008 and thirty- 

 three inches for 1910. The trees were 

 seven years old in 1908 and bore a heavy 

 crop that year, another in 1909 and 

 another last year. The orchard is one 

 of the best cared for as well as one of the 

 best producers of the Wenatchee district. 

 The irrigation was done with more than 

 the ordinary intelligence and care, but 

 the soil texture is rather coarse and the 



water-holding capacity low. thus being 

 favorable to large percolation losses into 

 the subsoil. Undoubtedly a considerable 

 saving in water would have been possible 

 had the furrows used been only 330 feet 

 long, instead of twice that length. 



Another Wenatchee orchard of fifty 

 acres, including apples, peaches, cherries 

 and other fruits, used in 1908, according 

 to measurements, something over sixteen 

 inches, and in 1910 17.5 inches, rainfall 

 not included. The soil here was perhaps 

 somewhat heavier than in the former 

 case, but the furrows used were twice as 

 long, and besides the run-off was con- 

 siderable. Part of the orchard, however, 

 was not in bearing, and none of it so 

 uniformly good as the other example 

 cited. The records of one of the Spo- 

 kane Valley companies show that on that 

 System a depth of 14.7 inches was applied 

 in 1905, 19.2 inches in 1906, 22.8 inches in 

 1907, and 17 inches in 1910, the rainfall in 

 addition averaging about twenty inches 

 per year. 



So we have some data at last as to 

 what is actually being used by a few, but 

 what everybody uses ought to be known 

 and on record. However, even if we did 

 know the exact amount used annually on 

 every single orchard, on every alfalfa 

 field, on every potato patch throughout 

 the entire state, it would still be a legiti- 

 mate question to ask how much is best. 

 It would be well for every irrigator to 

 first determine how much is used, and 

 then how much this can be economically 

 reduced. 



If we limit the use too much, smaller 

 yields will result, but this might be pos- 

 sible or even necessary to best use, for a 

 maximum yield per unit of area does not 

 always imply most economical use of the 

 water, as for instance, in one Utah exper- 

 iment twenty inches of water produced 

 a yield of 446 bushels of potatoes, while 

 increasing the water to forty inches gave 

 523 bushels. It was evidently not best 

 use to apply the second twenty inches 

 just to get the additional seventy-seven 

 bushels, when it could have been used 

 on another piece of ground to produce 

 446 bushels, or, in other words, it would 

 have been better to have had every acre 

 in that section yielding profitable crops 

 rather than only half of the acreage 

 yielding maximum crops. 



The time will never come when we 

 can arbitrarily fix the duty of water 

 for orchards or other crops and expect 

 it to apply everywhere. It is possible, 

 however, to take given conditions and 

 determine the water requirements within 

 reasonable limits, present knowledge 

 indicating that on deep, fine soil, such as 



