ITS CULTUEE IN CALIFOENIA. 



63 



tion to this subject is mainly due, I think, 

 to their unwitting renewal of the soil by 

 irrigation, making it possible for trees thus 

 sustained to flourish and bear good crops 

 forti number of years. No attention was 

 paid to the matter of fertilizing per se and 

 so cultivators thought, if they thought at 

 all on the subject, that their trees were 

 doing well enough without manures and 

 would never require them. Had the re- 

 newal of the soil been a more marked 

 necessity it would have elicited more at- 

 tention. 



FERTiLiZATioisr BY Water.— Irrigation 

 fertilizes the soil in two ways : 



1st. By the mechanical action of the 

 water, which takes up the fine particles of 

 vegetable matter in passing along the 

 ditches and deposits them as a silt in the 

 basins about the trees. 



2d. By the chemical elements contained 

 in the water itself. 



A propos of this subject I here present 

 an analysis of the water of the Los An- 

 geles river, made by Prof. E. W. Hilgard, 

 of the University of California: 



Total residue of sample tested 17.53 

 grains per gallon, of which 8.37 grains 

 consisted of common Glauber's salts, etc., 

 and 9.16 grains carbonate of lime, magne- 

 sia and silica. The detailed analysis is as 

 follows: 



Chloride of sodium (common salt)... 1.004 

 Sulphate of sodium (Glauber's salts).. 7.369 



Carbonate of lime 0.382 



Carbonate of magnesia 4.287 



Silica 1.171 



Sulphate of lime 0.776 



Phosphate of lime 2.182 



Iron and magnesia carbonates 0.259 



Alumina 0.100 



17.530 



The water of the Los Angeles river is 

 primarily derived from the mountains, 

 the same as nearly all of the irrigating 

 water used in Southern California, and 

 while there may be a great variation in 

 the chemical constituents of different 

 streams and springs it is probable that all 

 are more or less charged with fertilizing 

 elements. 



The Fertiltzing to be Considered in 

 Irrigation. — Orange growers, if they are 

 wise, will consider the fertilizing efiect of 

 water in irrigation and strive to make the 

 most of it. In this connection I wish to 



caution them against the plan somewhat 

 in vogue of allowing water to run in 

 channels along a row of trees, the portion 

 not absorbed flowing away as waste. By 

 this method the mechanical fertilization 

 |)reviously referred to, is entirely lost 

 More than this, the very soil about the 

 trees is robbed of some of its best ele- 

 ments, all being carried away to enrich 

 some adjoining field, or mayhap, the 

 roadside. When we consider irrigation in 

 this light, the basin method is by far the 

 more preferable. 



Water Fertilization Not Sufficient. 

 — While I am disposed to allow full meas- 

 ure of importance to the fertilizing which 

 comes from irrigation, I would enjoin the 

 fact that this alone is not sufficient. The 

 old groves alluded to, which have ex- 

 hausted their partially renovated soils, are 

 proof of this theory. 



Substantial Fertilizers Required. — 

 A full grown orange tree maintains a 

 wealth of foliage, forms new wood and 

 leaves five or six times annually and pro- 

 duces from one to five thousand oranges. 

 The organism from which all this is re- 

 quired deserves good food and plenty of it. 



Manures at Hand. — Nearly every fruit 

 grower has at hand the means of fertilizing 

 his orchard properly if he will only de- 

 vote sufficient attention to the subject. 

 Instead of allowing the refuse of his barn 

 yard to dry out and burn out through the 

 long summer and to leach away in winter, 

 he should have it preserved and applied 

 to the orchard ground. 



A Compost Heap. — A good v/ay is to 

 establish a compost heap at some place 

 convenient for wetting down during the 

 summer. A water-tight vat, built in the 

 ground or slightly depressed is best, but a 

 mere excavation where the earth is com- 

 pact will suffice. Into this let all the barn 

 yard refuse be thrown, together with all 

 the bones that are available, and all the 

 ashes from the house. In lieu of a plenti- 

 ful supply of ashes muriate of potash may 

 be used, which wall thoroughly decompose 

 the bones. Let the compost heap be wet 

 occasionally to facilitate decomposition, 

 and if too much heat is generated let the 

 mass be forked over. In this way a large 

 quantity of the best fertilizing matter may 



