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mo such, objection holds in the case of lands lying within the limits of 

 20 to 25 inches of annual rainfall. Here the absorption of tht winter 

 rains should be favoured to the utmost, for the run-off is mostly a dead 

 loss. Fall ploughing wherever the land is not naturally adequately 

 absorbent, and is not thereby rendered liable to washing away, is a 

 very effectual mode of utilizing the winter's moisture to the utmost, 

 so as to bring about the junction of the season's moisture with that of 

 the previous season, which is generally considered as being a condition 

 precedent for crop production in dry years. The same of course holds 

 true of winter irrigation ; the frequent omission of which in presence 

 of a plentiful water supply at that season is a prolific cause of avoidable 

 crop failures. Moistening the ground to a considerable depth by 

 winter irrigation is a very effective mode of promoting deep rooting, 

 and will thus stand in lieu of later irrigations, which, being more 

 scant, tend to keep the roots near the surface. 



Knowledge of the subsoil. — It cannot be too strongly insisted upon 

 that in our arid climate farmers should make themselves most 

 thoroughly acquainted with their subsoil down the depth of at least 

 four, but preferably six or eight feet. This knowledge, important enough 

 in the East, is doubly so here, since all root functions are and must be 

 carried on at much greater depths. It is hardly excusable that a 

 business man calling himself a farmer should omit the most elementary 

 precaution of examining his subsoil before planting orchard or vine- 

 yard, and should at the end of five years find his trees a dead loss in 

 consequence of an unsuitable subsoil. Similarly, no irrigator should 

 be ignorant of the time or amount of water it takes to wet his soil to 

 a certain depth. We have lately seen a whole community suffering 

 from the visible decline of the thrift of its fruit trees, which occurred 

 despite what was considered abundant irrigation ; i.e. allowing the 

 water to run for a given length of time, deemed to be sufficient. Yet 

 on being called in to investigate the causes of the trouble, the station 

 staff found that the irrigation water had failed to penetrate during the 

 allotted time to any beneficial extent, so that the trees were, in the 

 main, suffering from lack of moisture — a fact that could have been 

 verified by any one of the owners concerned, by simply boring or 

 digging a hole or two. But no one had thought of doing so, aad all 

 kinds of mysterious causes were conjectured to be at work in the 

 suffering orchards. A definite knowledge of the rapidity with which 

 irrigation water penetrates downward and side vays in his soil should 

 form a part of the mental equipment of every irrigator, particularly in 

 arranging his head ditches. For in sandy lands it may easily happen 

 that when these are too far apart, the water near the head ditch is 

 already wasting into the country drainage at the depth of ten or twelve 

 feet, before any has reached the end of the furrows, or has wetted the 

 lower half adequately Many such cases come under our observation, 

 and such ignorance of the conditions governing one of the most impor- 

 tant factors of success is hardly excusable in any one. Nor is the 

 quality of the water used indifferent in this connection ; for waters 

 containing alkali will fail to penetrate the soil as quickly as would 

 ordinary stream waters. 



Preventing evaporation. — But supposing the moisture to have reach- 

 ed the depths of the soil, whether from rains or from irrigation, it is 



