The herald., 1896-07-18

make separate item of it because it
Is derived by the plant from both the
soil and the air.
1t Is then combination of some or all
OF these fifteen elements that makes up
organic life, and this Is built up by chem
ical action-atomic motion.
The soil elements form a very small
proportion only of all plants. Some of
these elements have to be returned to
the soil sooner or later. AS a general
rule there are but three Expensive ele-
ments," viz: Nitrogen, phosphoric acid
and potash that any soil is likely to be.
come deficient In, that have to be return
ed or replaced
Inc great German chemist Liebig.
formulated the proposition that plant
foods in order to be available must be
soiupie. Accepting this proposition as
true, and believe 1t has never been
questioned, the relation of irrigation. or
water, to plant foods or fertilizers, is
very important; for, on the one
hand, II you do not get water
enough, there certainly will be nothing
10 dissolve the plant food, and under
such circumstances, chemical action
pant growth-cannot go on as we all
Know by looking at arid lands in the
ury season. On the contrary, il too
much water is applied. so that it either
soaks down below where the roots
reach, or drains off the land, the soluble
plant food that is dissolved by such ex-
cess or water, is either carried down be-
low the roots or runs off the land, thus
lmpoverishing the soil Where too much
water is applied it is teaching process
tnat Is going 'on-not a filterng one.
IL pehooves us, then, to look careful
~ az the proper application of water to
the land. While we must be sure to get
enough in order to maintain chemical
action. we must be careful not to get
100 much, SO as to leach out the soils
and uselessly impoverish them.
1t seems, then, that inasmuch as the
roots OF the trees in an orchard form
perfect network through the whole
SOIL, 1t is necessary to get an even dis
tribution of the required amount of
water over the whole surface of the
land. This certainly can be done by the
basin method first above mentioned I
Know that this method fiDds many object
ors, who say that it is impracticable,
expensive, and even impossible, in some
instances There are those who main
tain that 1t washes the ground too
much, and that where the ground is
rolling and the basins have to be made
small, too much expense is incurred
There are but two answers to such rea-
soning-ffrst, that anything that is
worth doing Is worth doing we'll, and.
second, that in some places the system
is actually practiced. even on side hills.
The second method above mentioned
does not distribute the water as evenly
as the first method. for you will OBJ
serve that the stream is run over the
whole ground until the last basin in the
row is filled. thus giving more water to
the trees at the upper end of the or
chard than the lower, by just the amount
of seepage that is going on during the
time that 1t is required to irrigate to
the lower end and pass back to the head
of the ditch. This amount, however,
may in some ases be trivial
The third method Is to be condemned
in every instance, for. as We have OBJ
served, the roots of trees form a per-
feet network; these roots are feeders
and, as we have shown, plant is built
up by chemical action and that water
is necessary to maintain this chemical
action; IL, therefore, the roots of plants
which have grown during the rainy sea-
son into the unirrigated portion are left
without water for a portion of the year
they languish and die.
The fourth method, called the mod
ern method" should never be resorted
to except where it is absolutely neces-
sary, and then the head bitches should
be very near together, and the burrows
| small and numerous. l know that this
method is very popular easy and cheap.
| and, what Is more and worse, many peo-
4 pie Alta IN tne Il2ADlL Oh So lTTlSdllHS.
| We are all creatures of habit, and what
we are in the habit of doing is very hard
| to change.
| The person who Is in the habit of ir-
rigation by the furrow method finds it
very easy to turn the water on in the
morning. get it regulated with close
watching all day. AT night he takes the
| last look-and finds 1t working well. goes
| home and permits the law of gravity
to carry out the process while he sleeps,
and awakes in the morning to find that
| these laws have not been suspended,
and the water still running down hill.
| 'rhe specific objections to the system
| are:
| First-As a general rule, anywhere
| from double to five times the amount
| of water Is used at an irrigation that is
used in the first and second methods
| above mentioned; and
! Second-That the water applied by the
| system is very unevenly distributed.
| On piece of sandy soil 100 feet long
| the water was turned on in the furrow
and left to run for six hours. On the
following day digging revealed the fact
that at the head of the ditch the water
had penetrated IL feet, and that at 100
feet it had penetrated but one foot. The
illustration shows the water line.
How deep the water would have per-
colated at the flnme had it been left to
run three days. and what amount of
teaching might have been done, We can
only conjecture by looking at the yellow
and unhealthy condition of some of our
older citrus orchards, and especially at
the upper ends of said orchards. that
have been irrigated by this so-called
modern method. There are two modi-
fications of the system which are i'm
provements The first consists in pip
ing the orchard, say every tenth row,
SO that the burrows are short. The sec
ond consists of running cross burrows
parallel with the fiume, thus making
temporary basins here, certainly Is food
for reflection and a subject to be in
| vestigated with profit.
The director of an agricultural exper-
iment station must give his attention to
the subject and determine the amount
of water necessary for different crops
on widely varying soils in diversifying
climates.
Curing Lemons
The lemons are stem-cut and are
gathered by taking all, without regard
to color, that will not pass through a
two-and- one -quarter-inch ring. During
the more active ripening season the
lemons are gathered as often as once a
month; for instance, the orchard was
picked early in January, again early in
February, and again early in March, and
the picking was not then finished-in-
deed, there Is scarcely any month that
do not have lemons to gather. I thus
prevent having any very large lemons
RIOTnEONlk M