26 



TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GRO WERS' CONVENTION. 



advantages over even the pea, being among other things a deep rooter, 

 and more easily plowed under. 



We have now carried our orchard to say the month of March; the 

 plowing is completed. Many use a harrow immediately after, but the 

 custom is not to be recommended, as it tends to pack the ground, and 

 should later rains come the water will be taken in better if the ground 

 be rough. By smoothing a little, moisture is saved; but the evapora- 

 tion is light at this season, so this may not be considered of any 

 moment. Should the land break up very lumpy, however, it may be 

 advisable to use a harrow. 



After the peas are well rotted, cultivation will of course be necessary, 

 and it is best to do this very lightly at first, in order not to bring the 

 vines to the surface. 



There are two generally accepted methods of irrigation : the basining 

 and the furrow system. Each is well known. The basining is, I believe, 

 the method earliest adopted; and this-, let us say, consists of irrigation 

 by flooding, whether in basins or by allowing the water to spread over 

 the entire surface. The basining proper can be done on any land; but 

 where the water is allowed to flow gently over the surface the land must 

 be level, or nearly so. There are several serious objections to either 

 form and no decided advantage. First, the entire surface being soaked, 

 the evaporation is many times what it would be were furrows used. 

 Virtually all the water required to wet the top six or seven inches, 

 depending on depth of cultivation following, is lost, and worse than 

 lost, for in this moist earth capillary tubes will be much easier made 

 than in a covering of dry earth. Second, the labor in preparing for and 

 in cultivation after, is much increased, as well as the actual running of 

 the water. One advantage which the advocates of this system claim, 

 that of a more equal distribution of the water, is worth considering, 

 although in the furrow system a careful irrigator will so arrange his 

 streams' as to give a fair, if not actually an equal distribution of the 

 water to all the trees. 



The second way spoken of is that by furrows, and here again we find 

 many methods employed, from the shallow affair made scarcely below 

 the surface, to the deep trench through which a subsoiler has been run 

 to a depth of several feet. It is obvious to all that one of the main 

 objects of the irrigator is to get the water down deep. It seems useless 

 to argue this, or state the reasons, as every one is no doubt familiar with 

 the subject. The deeper the furrow, the less will the water show on the 

 surface after an irrigation. Six or eight shallow furrows drawn between 

 two rows of trees amount to little better than a basining, except in the 

 cost of preparation. But three, two, or even one deep furrow, made 

 with a heavy, sharp plow, and so deep that the crust which forms just 

 below the line of cultivation is broken, will allow the water to sink in 



