Arizona silver belt., 1888-12-29
Irrig

1 tors Tn thlS State have leaEheo over
 and over again, to their cost. And if
 Mir. Coates or any one else should
 have doubts as te the important soil
 soil ingredients and plant fsod cen
 veyed ln irrigation waters. they can
 easily be set at rest by simple refer
 ence to the analyses of such matters published in this State as well as else
 where. And 1 may quote as an exam
 pie one just completed in this labora
 tory, showing that the water of one creek in Alameda Countsa1rEles to the land it irrigates about ifSffa grain
 of potash in each gallon; which means that if twelve inches eff such water
 were used on the ground during the season, each acre would receive there from about twenty pounds of fully available potash, being more than is required fer an average crop of wheat. The same water would carry with it the equivalent of 100 pounds of quick lime, and so on with ether matters re- quirea by plants. These things have definite cash value in the market; and this value the irrisator gets as free gift in addition to the water. Even in the case of the Nile, the sedi- ment is only part of the sum of fer tility conveyed by the river.
 The real question in the premises is the time and amount eff irrigation to be given in each individual case, and in these respects the variety of cases is so great that unless general princi- pies and particular bralns are brought to bear, what is one mans meat will very often prove another mans polsen. The producer of shipping fruit for the Eastern market will have te be much more careful and sparlng with the water than he who grows for the San Francisco market, where size and looks are mostly paid fer more than flavor, and where even a slightly "squashy" fruit will arrIvs in goed condition. Again, he who dries his fruit will net care to fill it up, by late irrigation, with extra water that he will have to evaporate at heavy ex- pense, without getting a-greater a 'weigH5 0r- TTTuit for his pans than ;f the late irrigation had not been prac- ticed. There is fer each fruit, and for each of the several uses to which it may be put, a definite limlt beyond which irrigation is of evil; and no mere rule-of-tbumb prescription can replace the individual exercise eff cem- mon sense and good judgment, in this as. in other agricultural operations. That irrigation has been and is being fearfully overdone in some parts of the State, is as certain as that without irrigation the San Joaquin Valley would still be desert. But there IS a wide margin between proper use, and abuse, of irrigation water. The fact that the duty" of water Tn this State varies all the way from fifty to 500 acres per secend-foot, is eloquent and needs no comment.
 Perhaps the best general rule that can be gwen in the premises is to copy natures operations as nearly as pessi- ble. Nature water-soaks the soil in winter and spring, and tapers of the supply toward summer, so that soil can be warmed and bring tue fruit to maturity. And few plants useful to man will stand 'wet feet" during the growing season, while very many can, in a reasonably deep soil, and with thorough tillage of the surface to check evaporation, supply themselves fer months from the depths of the land and remain in full vigor. The chill, and consequent checking of veg etatlve functions, produced by late ir- rigation with cold mountain water, often do more damage than continued drought would have done. In the field, as in the garden, one thorough and well-timcd soaking is wsrth half dszen superficial waterings, which allow the precious fluid to eyaporate without much real benefit to the roots E. w. Hilgard in Maryville (Cal) Appeal.