54 
AMERICAN POMOROGlCAIv SOCIETY 
Discussion. 
President Goodman: Would you like to ask Mr. Lewis any questions? 
Question: I would like to know how much water approximately is re- 
quired to irrigate an acre of bearing fruit trees? 
Mr. Lewis. That is a pretty hard question to answer, for the reason 
that it depends upon the variety, and the soil, and the type of fruit. If you 
are growing apples, I would say the minimum would be 17 inches, and run 
up to 30; cherries, 17 to 20 inches; prunes, that same amount; pears a little 
less than apples. On the other hand, some crops take much more water 
than others. On a field of s^nd underlain with gravel, twenty-one feet of 
water was run on, and even then it was difficult to keep the crop up to 
standard. 
Question: What would be required for one application? 
Mr. Lewis. Oh, we irrigate about two to three times a year in an 
apple orchard; in many cases not over twice, and very rarely if ever over 
three times. 
President: One question I would like to ask, Mr. Lewis, and that is, un- 
der our conditions through the Colorado section and in the big Shoshone 
sections of the country, where at least fifteen, and in a great many cases, 
twenty-five per cent of the acreage of the country could come together and 
get what might be called an irrigation system from the hilltop lakes, would 
it not be possible and, profitable also, to irrigate an orchard from these 
lakes, where we have at least a six weeks’ drought in the middle of the 
summer? 
Mr. Lewis. Yes; I think it is practicable. Before going West I lived 
east about fifteen years; and I know there are very many cases here where 
irrigation would be very helpful to you. And there are many places here 
in the East — that is why I chose certain slides here today, to show you how 
to adapt certain of the phases of irrigation to eastern conditions. 
Question: I would like to ask how large a lake is required to irrigate 
sixty acres, and how much horse-power it takes to pump or put it on the 
land? 
Mr. Lewis. That is an engineering question. We use engines from two 
to eight h. p., that is for a 4-inch pipe. We do not try to irrigate sixty 
acres a day, but take certain sections of the orchard and irrigate in small 
areas. 
Question: How often do strawberries need irrigating? 
Mr. Lewis. Irrigating strawberries depends on the type of soil; irri- 
gate them about two or three times where using the one-crop variety; but 
in some cases we grow two and sometimes three crops in a year. One 
irrigation early in the season for the tops, then irrigate again, and perhaps 
two more irrigations will finish the season — making about four Irrigations 
in all for double-crop varieties; and two irrigations for one crop varieties. 
Though even these estimates vary with conditions. 
Question: What do you mean by two crops— -two in a year? 
Mr. Lewis. Yes; in many cases two, and sometimes three. 
Question: What proportion of the orchards of the Northwest have to be 
irrigated? 
