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ing after peaches prefer that on the bottom land; but Mrs. Flournoy tells 

 me when she wants fruit to can to get it from the irrigated fruit. You may 

 deceive grown people, but you can't a three-year old child. My little boy, 

 three years old, will go to the orchard and refuse to take the finest cling 

 peach on the bottom, and go to the hills; he says it is better fruit. I would 

 say to those who have water on the land to keep it as far from the tree as 

 possible; never wet the surface of the soil if you can wet the roots of the 

 tree without it. I have always endeavored to keep the top of the ground 

 as dry and as well cultivated as I can; this will keep the roots moist below 

 the surface, and will not be affected by the rays of the sun. The object in 

 keeping the water away from the trees in our section, is that in the fall of 

 the year we are compelled to take the water away from the tree that the 

 wood may harden ; if not, our trees continue to grow until the frost, and 

 then if we have a hot spell, as we do in our section of the country late in 

 the fall, there is an injury to the tree if the root is near the surface; and I 

 wish to again call the attention of the fruit growers of this convention to 

 the effect of keeping the water away from the tree; that is, upon such land 

 as mine, sharp grade gravel and sandy loam; I have no experience in irri- 

 gating clay land. 



Mr. Wilcox: I have had considerable experience in irrigation for twenty- 

 five years, chiefly in small fruit, for where I live we can't raise berries with- 

 out it. I had sixty acres of berries twenty years ago which I irrigated from 

 a single well. That is a heavy soil, where by going five or six feet deep the 

 water will come to the surface, and there I am raising the prune trees on 

 Mirabolan stock. Cherries have died; magnolia have died; almonds have 

 died, for the reason of too much water. I put in twenty acres of black- 

 berries, and ridged it to get above the water, and after a couple of years 

 they got to the water — it wouldn't do. The proof that irrigation is neces- 

 sary in Santa Clara County is that prune growers who said two or three 

 years ago that my prunes wouldn't do because I irrigated, are now bringing 

 ditches into their prune orchards. Mr. Ingals, who has the oldest prune 

 orchard in the county, is paying for pumping water twice in the season on 

 that orchard. I hold then, in most sections when your trees get large, you 

 need irrigation. I have sometimes thought if a tree grows too large, it gets 

 its growth and stops; I have seen such a tree take new life from irrigation. 

 I have seen apples take their second growth after having been irrigated. 

 You have got to have water, if it is not in the soil, you have got to put it 

 there — too much water won't do — it won't do for the cherry, nor any tree 

 that has got a porous, thick root like the cherry or the blackberry. In my 

 hand I hold the result of an interview with a canner in San Jose on this 

 very matter. They decided that the irrigated fruit is the best for them as 

 a rule; it won't keep quite so long, perhaps. There is such a thing as irri- 

 gating too much; if you irrigate strawberries too much, they will be softer 

 and won't keep so long. By irrigating as I do, I have my trees thirteen, 

 fourteen, or fifteen feet apart, and they fill the whole top. Mr. Block's pear 

 trees are so thick together that the tops form an arch that meet, and he 

 raises fruit that sells for the highest price. 



Mr. Hatch: I don't know anything about irrigation only what I have 

 been told. In the locality where I live we find that good cultivation makes 

 good fruit and plenty of it. I was told this week that the irrigated fruit 

 for canners was not so liable to mush in the cans. I know that there is a 

 great difference in cultivation, and irrigation is a great deal better than no 

 cultivation. It seems to me in countries where there is not sufficient rain- 

 fall that water must be applied in some manner or else fruit cannot be 

 made, but my experience has been in rich soil without irrigation and with 



