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Show WATER AND HARDPAN First Care Is to Get Water Deeply Deep-ly Into the Soil. Rapid Evaporation From the Surface Promptly Arrests the Downward Seepage and the Capillarity Is Then Upward. The first care of the orchard irrigator irriga-tor Is to get water deeply Into the soil without flooding or puddling the surface. sur-face. It Is not after all so much a matter mat-ter of the number of Inches used as the deep diffusion-of the water throigh the soil to the full depth of the natural rooting of the tree. In this dry climate, cli-mate, If the first two or three feet of the soil are quickly saturated with water, perhaps sufficient for six feet of healthy moisture, and then the Irrigation Irri-gation Is stopped, the rapid evaporation evapora-tion from the surface soli will promptly prompt-ly arrest the downward seepage and the capillarity will be upward, so that none will go into the subsoil. The subsoil will then gradually dry out and harden and each repetition of this operation op-eration will aggravate the subsoil conditions con-ditions until a bardpan Is formed Into which the water will not seep readily. This results In the lower roots of the tree being encased In hard, dry soil to become Inactive or even die, writes E. J. Wlckson In the Denver Field and Farm. Another evil of this condition Is that t each irrigation the air Is driven out of tho upper soil so that the roots In It are smothered, followed by such evils as gum disease, die back, paling foliage and fruit dropping, for we see the tree unable to obtain sufficient water to properly dilute the food elaborated elab-orated In the leaves, or to keep It In proper solution for distribution throughout the tree, and carry it to the roots for the work of root extension tnd mineral solution. All attempts to remedy this by the application of manures ma-nures and mulch to supply dissolvents, or such delicately soluble salts aa nitrates ni-trates to stimulate the solution, are only temporarily beneficial and In the long run bring on the greater complications. compli-cations. Few Irrigators know much about how water acts In the soli, as they only see the surface and warrant the criticism of Wilcox In his Irrigation Farming that "unskilled labor has a penalty of twenty-five to fifty per cent, attached to it In the application of water and unfortunately this class Is too prevalent in the irrigating fields." One of the mistakes often observable on heavy soils Is the running of five or six furrows between each row of trees, whereas three or four are sufficient. The furrows should be no nearer than sufficient to allow the water of each to Ink In Independently, fanning. out to meet below. If streams are so close that they mingle In their downward course a foot or two bolow the surface sur-face they cause a puddling of the soil and consequent driving up of air, which In a short time arrests the downward action of the water, making it seep more and more slowly, until a practical practi-cal standstill occurs. The result is generally hardpon. As Irrigation Is usually practical but one way through the orchard a deep subsoil track or tunnel should be run half way between the trees transversely the streams. Tula can be done with a small tool on a subsoil plow shank big enough to make a track about tho size of a gopher run at a depth of fifteen fif-teen to twenty Inches. The benefits accomplished by this are the dissemination dissem-ination of water all around tho trees, the more rapid spreading of the water without driving out the air. as In the deep furrow, and the carrying of the air deep down Into the soil, thus as slstlng Irrigation. This may be objected ob-jected to as a root pruning operation which it certnlnly Is, and on this account ac-count It is not practical In all seasons. sea-sons. This Is to be regretted because It Is a great advantage to Irrigation. |