868 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
til the work has been inspected. The increasing de¬ 
mand for drain tile and the competition between man¬ 
ufacturers has resulted in a product that is nearly 
perfect in regard to making good joints when laying 
them in the trench. These details are of far more 
practical importance than are accurate maps. 
_ HENRY E. COX. 
IRRIGATION OF ORCHARDS. 
1. I have some land in Northern Michigan on the top 
of a river bluff about 150 feet above a river valley and on 
SHROPSHIRE WITH KARAKULE LAMBS. Fig. 247. 
the south side of the river. It is sandy, but was originally 
covered with beech and maple. 1 am setting it out to 
peaches and apples. The land is entirely dry and the 
locality is of course subject to long dry spells in the Sum¬ 
mer. There are some large springs from which water 
could be readily lifted to this land for irrigation purposes 
at small expense by means of rams. Would it be of mate¬ 
rial advantage to fruit trees to have all the water needed? 
If so could the water take the place of cultivation to any 
extent? 2. I have not far from there a large bed of 
carbonate of lime (marl) which is white and has no clay 
in it. Would it be of much value on such sandy soil? 
What crops would it benefit, apples, peaches, potatoes, 
strawberries or clover? r p t 
Michigan. 
1. The answer must naturally depend on conditions 
which are more or less different in every com¬ 
munity, but first of all it must depend on the value 
of the crop to be grown. For example; the gross in¬ 
come from an acre of a certain crop may be taken as 
$40, 75% or $30 of which may be counted as cost of 
production and $10 as profit. Irrigation might increase 
the gross income by 25% or to $50, but if it costs $10 
per acre to irrigate, the cost of producing the irri¬ 
gated crop would be $30 plus $10 or $40 per acre, 
and the profits would be the same as without irriga¬ 
tion. Strictly speaking they would be a little less on 
account of the increase of expenses incident to har¬ 
vesting and marketing the larger crop. On the other 
hand, if from another crop a gross income of $200 
per acre is obtained without irrigation with 25% or 
$50 as profit, be irrigated and the gross income thereby 
be increased 25% at the same cost for irrigation as in 
the preceding case, the figures would look something 
like this: 
Gross income .$250.00. 
Cost of production plus irrigation... 160.00 
Profits . $90.00 
In this case the net profits from irrigation would 
be at the rate of $40 per acre or in reality a little less 
for the same reason as above. It is for precisely 
these reasons that in many of the semi-arid districts 
of the West it is not found profitable to irrigate 
wheat, though the average crop may be only 10 or 12 
bushels per acre, while at the same time it is found 
immensely profitable to irrigate Alfalfa. For exactly 
these same reasons it will probably never be found 
profitable to irrigate general farm crops in the East 
because of the small gross income per acre, and the 
fact that they may be grown reasonably well without, 
yet it has been found very profitable to irrigate truck 
crops and small fruits. At the Michigan Experiment 
Station an irrigated plot of Early Summer cabbage 
gave 5,000 more heads of marketable size per acre 
than did a similar plot not irrigated, which at two 
cents per head gave a gain per acre of $100 for the 
irrigated plot, or 10 times the cost of irrigating. The 
season, however, was an excessively dry one. Dur¬ 
ing the past season some crops, especially small fruits 
were almost a complete failure in many sections, yet 
the cost for cultivation and fertilizer was as great as 
in other years. If, by irrigation, the crop could have 
been saved, even if the cost for irrigation had been so 
great as to have equaled the normal profits, it would 
have been worth while, for it would have been the 
means of making ends meet, while in many cases the 
actual loss was heavy. As a matter of fact growers 
of strawberries in the drought-stricken districts who 
were equipped for irrigation found it extremely 
profitable, because the scarcity of fruit made the prices 
correspondingly high. 
While it is true that irrigation in many cases has 
proven of value to Eastern small fruit and vegetable 
growers, it is also true that in a majority of cases we 
have not yet learned properly to conserve the moisture 
which we have. The writer has seen in Southern 
California excellent crops of peaches and prunes ma¬ 
tured without irrigation where no rain fell nor was 
expected from the middle of April to October. The 
peaches ripened about July 15 and the prunes still 
later, so that there were at least three months during 
which no rain fell and during which time the trees 
bloomed, matured a crop of fruit, and set buds for 
an abundant crop the succeeding year. Such a drought 
in the East would be disastrous. When it is stated, 
however, that every effort was made to supply humus 
by growing cover crops during the Winter months, 
and that the soil moisture was conserved by a three- 
inch dust mulch secured by harrowing once each 
week from the time of plowing (about March 1) un¬ 
til the fruit was matured, some idea of the Western 
orchardist’s appreciation of moisture may be secured. 
He has learned bj r experience that he must keep what 
moisture he has. Too often we trust to luck. 
In sections east of the Mississippi there are many 
seasons when artificial watering of tree fruits is not 
necessary or even desirable if they are given suitable 
cultural attention. Trees root more deeply than small 
fruits and vegetables, and are not so quickly affected 
by dry weather. It is also possible to overwater tree 
fruits and thus cause overgrown and less highly- 
flavored fruit. On the other hand the leachy charac¬ 
ter of much of the northern Michigan soil, with 
which the writer is somewhat familiar, makes it very 
susceptible to drought, especially if the humus con¬ 
tent has been neglected. Peaches and Summer apples 
in such soils sometimes suffer severely, especially as 
CROSS OF KARAKULE AND SHROPSHIRE. Fig. 248 
to size. In such cases, irrigation, if it can be accom¬ 
plished at a reasonable expense, may be of much 
benefit 
It must be remembered that when watering is done 
it should be thorough, and an irrigation plant must 
be planned with that in view. Numerous light appli¬ 
cations encourage the roots to come to the surface, 
where they are injured by the drying out of the soil 
after each successive watering. It is probably of no 
benefit, unless in exceptional years, to irrigate tree 
fruits in the East more than once or perhaps twice 
during the season. In good orchard soil the percent¬ 
age of free moisture should range from five to 10 
per cent. When it becomes less than this irrigation 
is of benefit. When water is applied it should be in 
such quantities that it will soak down at least three 
feet. The length of time required for water to pene¬ 
trate this distance depends on the character of the 
soil. In easily irrigated soils (porous sandy loams) 
it will take from 12 to 24 hours, and a quantity of 
water equal to four or five inches deep over the sur¬ 
face will be required. Irrigation will not take the 
place of cultivation. The application of water to the 
soil causes it to bake and harden and thus water is 
evaporated rapidly and the soil becomes poor in tex¬ 
ture. Soils should be cultivated as soon as dry 
enough to work and a dust mulch maintained until 
the next irrigation. In cases where the sod mulch 
system of culture is used irrigation may be practiced 
to advantage without subsequent tillage. 
2. Experiments seem to show that neither apples 
nor peaches are benefited by the application of lime 
unless the land is excessively sour. Lime should 
never be used on a soil immediately bdfore a crop 
of potatoes, as it aggravates the fungus disease, po¬ 
tato scab. There is a rapidly growing conviction 
among commercial growers that strawberries require 
a slightly acid soil, or at least that the application of 
large quantities of lime is injurious. Clover will not 
thrive in an acid soil, and the acidity must be con¬ 
trolled by liming. Marl may be applied without dan¬ 
ger immediately before sowing the crop, as it has no 
caustic actiqn. w. j. w. 
June 1, 
THE LOW-HEADED APPLE TREE. 
Part III. 
This general process is followed with the tree in 
the succeeding years, the object being to give the tree 
the training it needs—and no two trees will ever be 
just alike. If the tree tends to grow upward wc 
throw the growth outward by cutting to an outside 
bud. If it tends to droop we cut to an upper bud to 
try to make it grow at a fair level instead of on the 
ground. Fig. 249 shows a three-year-old Winter 
Banana. It is not exactly an ideal tree, and the 
owner is leaving extra wood in the top, not very much 
though, for the camera exaggerates the density of the 
tree by bringing all branches together. The clippings 
on the ground (some were removed) show about how 
much was cut off the ends of the branches. It didn’t 
need cutting back to stimulate vigor, for it made 
■nearly four feet of wood growth and bore a bushel 
of good fruit last season. The continued development 
of this tree undoubtedly will nearly reproduce the tree 
in Fig. 226, page 617, with its strong, vigorous, un¬ 
yielding scaffold branches, the head fully occupied 
with bearing wood, and most of it within reach of 
the ground although not on the ground. 
Now let me add a little about the gaining of 
symmetry or balance in the head. Look at Fig. 241 
and then at Fig. 249 and you will notice that the 
branches from the main trunk are well spread up and 
down—no two are at the same height. That is for 
strength in the scaffold and to get rid of weak 
crotches. Now if we could look down on the heads 
of these trees we would find the branches running 
out like wheel spokes run out of the hub, perhaps not 
at such regular intervals, but so that the tree is well 
balanced all around. Now the “undesirable” branches 
that I said should be removed are simply the ones 
that crowd these desirable ones. If two branches 
start at the same point perhaps one is already a 
weaker branch and can be cut off, or it is not in a 
good place and can be cut off, or we may not be able 
to decide the first year and it will do little, if any, 
harm to allow them both to remain and see the second 
year which of the two does more nearly what you 
desire—then cut off the other. If two branches start 
out at different heights and go in the same direction 
perhaps one can be cut away without unbalancing the 
tree, or they can be thrown away from each other by 
cutting to the proper buds. If a lot are left on, as 
our “no pruning” friends would have it, when they 
come into fruit they will lie down on each other just 
like shingles lie over each other on a roof. It may 
be all right to support the load of fruit on the ground, 
but how can we thoroughly spray, how can we keep 
out the fungus troubles, how can we get light down 
to the lower branches to color the fruit, and lastly, 
how can we pick well where the branches lightened 
from a part of their load lift and pull away from the 
lower branches and commonly pull off in that lift 
many apples that go to swell the load to the cider 
mill? If you look closely again at Fig. 226, page 617, 
you will see that the branches do not lie down on 
each other, but are curving over with the weight of 
their load and are held up by the strong main 
branches, so that spray and air and light can get into 
all parts of the tree, and the picker can work without 
fear of knocking off as many apples as he picks. 
Now this kind of a tree head can be as well de¬ 
veloped at any height, so why not, for the most part, 
THREE-YEAR WINTER BANANA. Fig. 249. 
take advantage of the low head that is easier to 
handle? East or west, north or south, the low-headed 
tree can be grown. Some local influence may deter¬ 
mine that it is not altogether desirable, but it is al¬ 
ways best to have an ideal, profitable tree in mind to 
serve as a general pattern. We can’t make an ideal 
tree every time, but we can always work towards that 
ideal. " w. G. brierley. 
