OCR Text |
Show IRRIGATION OF AN ORCHARD Not Necessary to Use Water In Such Quantities as to Transform Highway High-way Into Mudpuddle. It Is not necessary In the irrigation irriga-tion of an orchard to use water In such quantities or In such manner as to transform the adjacent highway Into In-to a continuous mudpuddle for tbe length of the farm, or If the road Is on a grade wash deep gullies In It and thus make travel either disagreeable disagree-able or dangerous, as Is so often illegally ille-gally done In our Irrigated districts, writes 8. O. Jayne In the Denver Field and Farm. Again, at the opposite oppo-site extreme sre Instances In which only a small head of water Is used and none Is permitted to run off the field, yet the loss Is as great In proportion pro-portion to the amount applied, as when It runs into a road. This may occur through a desire on the part of the Irrigator to be economical. The water la applied In homeopathic quantities, quan-tities, at frequent intervals, not enough at one time to thoroughly moisten the ground, and as a result of the subsequent subse-quent baking of the top toll In the shallow furrows, practically all the water wa-ter applied quickly escapes by evaporation evap-oration and accomplishes no good. Very often much water Is wasted, or St least excessive amounts are needed for orchards because of undue baste In planting and lack of care In first properly grading and prepsring the land so that tbe trees may be economically econom-ically Irrigated. This Is a matter that should always be given careful attention, atten-tion, for patience In getting the orchard or-chard established baa sometimes made It necessary to replant and Is Invarla-by Invarla-by a source of aggravation, expense snd waste for years. We know by experience ex-perience that depth of furrows used In Irrigating bears a marked Influence upon the rate at which evaporation takes place and Is therefore a factor to be taken Into account In checking bmses by this cause. When they sre made only three Inches deep, the loes are three times as great as In canes where the wattr Is applied In furrows twelve Inches in depth. The line of furrows "herter thn thrift cota-Cionly cota-Cionly made would Ilkewlie make a for.slderable satlt.g possible In most instances. |