62 



TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



MR. WEEKS. I irrigated last season three times. The first irriga- 

 tion was a very long and heavy one. I irrigated on twenty-one or 

 twenty-two acres, equal to one hundred and fifty ten-hour days. But 

 we had had three very dry years and I hadn't enough water. But I 

 had my own system that time and I put it on for keeps. 



MR. BERWICK. Have you stated how long the water stands in the 

 ditches after you irrigate? 



MR. WEEKS. Last year I used it forty-eight hours, two twenty- 

 four-hour days. 



DR. WOODBRIDGE. I was going to say that on my small orange 

 orchard on Buena Vista street, an acre and a quarter of trees, twenty- 

 six or twenty-seven years old, they are 21 feet apart, which makes them 

 on the quincunx 15 feet apart; and they have been irrigated only with 

 one furrow for the last three or four years. I subsoil nearly at right 

 angles to the way the water runs. 



MR. HUTCHINSON. In our county, Fresno, to irrigate with as 

 little water as you people do, I think we would get very little fruit. 

 We have plenty of water there and we put it on. At the lower end of 

 the ditches it has got a little too much for us, and the water is rising 

 there and it has got very near the surface. But I have tried irrigation 

 in the rows the way you indicate, between the grape roots, which are 

 only 10 or 12 feet apart. But we find that it is better to run closer, 

 next to the vines. We let the water in, and sometimes it runs in one 

 place; where it comes out it may be on for three or four days, and the 

 other places about twenty-four hours; and we find that we don't have 

 any too much water; we are ready to irrigate again in about six weeks. 



MR. BERWICK. On that land where your water table stands so 

 high, do you still irrigate ? 



MR. HUTCHINSON. No, sir; we are draining instead. 



At this time a recess was taken until Wednesday, at 9:30 a. m. 



