34 



TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS* CONVENTION. 



headway among average orchardists. You will yet see more furrows 3 and 

 4 inches deep than from 6 to 8 inches deep, as they should be. To secure 

 really deep furrowing requires, first, a full appreciation of its importance; 

 next, a suitable tool and persistence in its use. It is difficult to make 

 uniform 6 to 8 inch furrows with a three-shovel furrower, especially if 

 the ground has not been kept thoroughly and deeply cultivated. It is 

 usually better to take the additional time and use a two-shovel furrower, 

 and it should be of the best form and in good condition. Too much 

 stress can not be put on the importance of securing deep furrows at any 

 cost. Where deep-furrowing implements have been used continuously 

 for a considerable time with suitable application of water, followed by 

 proper cultivation, the so-called irrigation hardpan, so much discussed, 

 has disappeared and there is no longer excuse for that sharp-cutting 

 subsoil implement that has done so much mischief. 



Another modern process coming into quite general use, in our valley 

 at least, is covering the irrigating furrows soon after the water is taken 

 off and before the ground is fit for cultivation. With deep furrows this 

 is easily done with any implement that will pull in the shoulders of the 

 furrows, without firming the moist ground. An upright plank with a 

 wide strip of strap iron in front, at bottom, projecting a little below the 

 wood, with sharp steel spikes thickly set in the. wood, extending a 

 couple of inches below the iron, drawn lengthwise of the furrows, serves 

 to good purpose. It covers the bottoms of the furrows with fine earth 

 (it is not necessary to fill the furrows), and the steel teeth fines the 

 surface between the furrows enough to stop evaporation, which other- 

 wise goes on rapidly before the ground is fit to cultivate. I dwell upon 

 this simple device because, after several years' use, I deem it really the 

 most important process, next to deep furrowing, connected with 

 irrigation. In our own experience we consider that it makes a 

 saving of from 15 to 20 per cent of the water got into the ground, over 

 the old way of allowing the excessive evaporation to go on until the 

 soil is fit to cultivate. A heavy implement that will firm the ground 

 should not be used. 



I should have stated before that the methods of handling the soil, 

 here discussed, apply especially to clay, granite, and other of the heavier 

 soils. In light sandy or gravelly soils, handling and irrigating are quite 

 different problems, which I can not now discuss. 



After all that has been said and written, and especially after the 

 marked results that more than bear out all that its advocates claim, I 

 am quite ashamed to speak of deep, general cultivation between irriga- 

 tions. Besides, to argue it before such an audience as this is like the 

 preacher, on a rainy Sunday morning, scolding the absentees over the 

 heads of the faithful few present. 



