Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1909-06-04
GROWING TREES
ON DRY LAND
This Man Understands the Ways and
Means OF Conserving the
Moisture.

/ have been giving special atten-
tion to planting trees under dry con-
ditions for the last 23 years and have
evolved a system here, there and
everywhere, modified by the climatic
conditions by which any intelligent
man may raise shade trees, forest
trees or bearing orchard without a
drop Of irrigating water. In start
ing an orchard or a plantation Of
trees, plow the ground at least a foot
deep, subsol another six inches If
possible, but this Is hardly necessary
where the precipitation Is over 10
inches When this land is first
plowed it is usually pretty dry, but
after a years summer following in
an ordinary season Of II or IA inches
precipitation, the ground will be
found soaked with moisture two or
three feet deep from the top down.
This is simply water bottled up by
cultivation for future use
After these two or three feet OF
moist earth have been secured trees
can be planted with perfect safety
for 1t requires a whole year without
a single drop of rain to dry out one
foot OF ground properly cultivated,
the cost OF which Is about one-tenth
of that of irrigation. Therefore we
fully insure all our trees against a
years drought from the first as we
plant them two feet deep. This is
also part of the system-not to take
any chances. Five years ago | made
an addition to my orchard of 400
cherry trees. The original 400 are
alive today, except three or four
which represent the loss in trans
planting.
The trees should be given more
space than in an irrigated orchard,
or larger area to exploit for mois-
ture and every year by careful bot
Ting in the moisture as il comes,
the trees actually receive more than
they can use up. Therefore the
ground will keep soaking up deeper
and deeper until, 10 or 10 years, the
trees become large enough to absorb
all that comes and the precipitation
and the absorption balance. Then
If the trees show signs of depletion,
they must be thinned out, and 1t be-
comes simply a question of so much
bearing wood to the acre Of precipi-
tation. In my orchard, where the
trees are 10 years old, the moisture
has reached point II feet from
the surface down and the tree roots
are all through IT, Therefore, why
should we worry about one dry year
or a dozen?
Dry or wet years, my orchard
brings me in from $50 to 500 an
acre. The trees are living on the
moisture that fell two or three years
ago. by proper selection of varie-
ties anyone can raise trees. No OBJ
stacle in the way except the timber
line. In the % years of my dry
farming on my present ranch, have
never lost a single tree or any crop
by drought. When a so-called dry
year comes, we do not know it, un-
less scratcher comes and tells us
his crop has dried out. Then | ad-
Wise him to hitch on another horse
and plow little deeper next time,
which perhaps he does and more
likely will not Some men prefer to
skate on thin ice,
There are other artificial ways and
means for protecting trees against
drought For instance, by making
ridges In the orchard by back fur
rowing with the plow, thousands of
tons of snow drifts can be collected
during every blizzard on the same
as the railroad snow fences
This Is seldom necessary, except in
dry regions of nine to ten inches pre-
,ipitation. Nature also protects her
)wn, for the whole center Of the
rec is u reservoir OF sap that cir
'ulates and provides growth and
'ustcnance being found only in the
'eglon OF the bark and adjoining
ayers, II, r. Parsons In Field and
Farm.