The herald., 1898-01-02

from the direction Of the prevailing
winds, the cold nights, the dry air, the
moon, experience of weather prophets,
or anything else. When 1t gets ready to
rain all the signs will work around to
the center and point all right. Even the
barometer can then tell something about
1t; and If you can wait until the middle of
May our esteemed signal service can
give some information that can be
deemed reliable.
A question far more important than
whether we are to have dry winter or
not is whether we are again to allow
the winter water in the bitches to go to
waste as usual because trees are not
suffering, or put it in the ground to
take the place of rain. Winter irrigation
has so far been shamefully neglected in
California. The loss to the state has
been very great and is suspected by few
because it's effects are not Immediately
seen.
We have now all over the southern
| part of the state, and probably in the
north, the dryest subsoil ever known at
this time of year. 1t will take far more
than the average rainfall to put it again
in the condition in which it generally is.
The rainfall of two of the last four win
| tiers was carce1y above half the average.
In the other two it was about the aver
age, with a distribution that was very
good for winter crops, but put very lit
tie in the ground below three or four
feet from the surface. Since 1923 we
have had no winter that has done one
quarter duty toward filling the deep I'M
foreground channels, the spongy subsoil
and the crevices of the hills on which
depend the supplies for irrigating water
in summer.
Those who have seen a piece Of hard,
dry ground adjoining a newly irrigated
piece sap nearly all the moisture from
the latter in less than month for sew
eral feet beyond the line of junction can
readily understand the effect of sub
soil dry as powder on the two or three
feet Of top soil that Is wet by irriga-
ton, at time, too, when there is little
water to spare and none to waste. The
moisture is Slapped downward and lost
even more rapidly than upward into the
air; for the upward loss can be very
nearly stopped by good cultivation, but
there is no way to stop the loss down
ward.
From this flows another effect which
many noticed last season and which
was still plain in 1883. If trees or vines
begin to suffer for surface water they
are quickly and generally completely re-
stored by irrigation, even if late, pro-
vided the subsoil Is moist. Most fruits
may be brought fully up to the size they
would have reached and even such par
ticular things as oranges will suffer but
little If the irrigation is not postponed
too long. Especially is this the case
with most vegetables, alfalfa and most
all irrigated crops. The loss from de-
lay in irrigation will be slight. But let
this happen on a dry subsoil and you
may pour on all the water you please
yet fail to restore the crop to anything
like what it would have been with a
wet subsoil. On a wet subsoil you will
have due notice of anything suffering
and have plenty of time to get the water
on. But on a dry subsoil it is like an
alarm Of fire. and If it gets the start it
may be too late to make marketable
crop.
Most all irrigators Of much expert
ence well know these facts. But it is so
comfortable to wait for the clouds to
do their duty. Many more are afraid
that if it does rain the ground may be
too wet. The heavy rainfall of 1SS3-S4
Is complete answer to this objection.
By the middle of March, that year the
ground was like ducks back. By the
middle of May wells were full, many to
overlooking, springs were on the hill
sides by the hundred where they were
never known before and ran all summer,
tule patches, willows, sycamores and
| other water growthS were in thousands
OF new places, every river ran through
to the ocean all summer and fall, and
hundreds of dry gulches carried flow
ing stream all summer until the land
looked like an eastern state. In most
parts of the country about two feet of
water entered the ground, or more than
the total rainfall of the best ordinary
| seasons.
| If any fruit or summer crops were
damaged by this excessive soaking Of
the ground no one ever discovered it.
Thousands of trees were killed by it..
but 1t was because they were on low
ground or in swales where they never
should have been planted. If any fruit
would have been injured it would have
been the orange crop of that winter or
the next one. But there never were bet
ter oranges than in that very winter
and they never were better than in the
spring after the ground had been soaked
for months. In few places they may
have been hurt some, but not on ground
well enough drained to be good orange
| land. The crop of the next year, when
the subsoil and top soil had never be-
| fore been so wet, was one that at New
Orleans took nearly all the high premi-
ums over the best of Florida and was
| the first that went in any quantity on the