The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-06-15

this water, however it may reach the
field where it is used, must enter the
soil and take up dissolved mineral
salts from the earth and carry these
soluble salts into the tree or any other
plant through the roots. Water is
only the means of conduction and not
the source of fertility. So it makes
no difference how it gets to the roots
of the tree as long as it is there in suf-
ticient quantity. The advantage of
irrigation, provided there is an adj
equate supply of water, is that you
have it when it is needed. In a semi
arid non-irrigated country the water
supply must be secured by conserva-
ton of moisture by cultivation and
pulverization of the surface of the soil,
or by mulching, which restricts evap-
grafton. Keep the water in reserve
and it will perform its work.
(Which is the better fruit, that rails
ed under irrigation or that without?"
There is not, and cannot be, any diff
ference provided there is enough wa
ter in each case. The function of wa
ter, as before explained, is to carry the
food material to the right place. 1t is
C00 SDOOu Oul vi WhlCh thO lOOO ~
taken and not the food itself. AS well
charge the quality of the food or medl-
cine to the spoon out of which they
are taken as to charge the benefits to
the water in irrigation or without irri-
cation.
AS fine apples as can be raised in
the world are raised at Hood River,
Oregon, where most of them are raised
without irrigation, as there is seepage
enough to supply the requisite moist
ure. Near by just as good apples are
raised by irrigation. In the Wenat-
chez valley Washington just as fine
fruit can be raised as that at Hood
River, but here irrigation is absolutely
necessary unless now and then there
is an adequate supply of moisture by
seepage. The same condition prevails
in the Yakima valley. Whenever any
one claims that fruit is better raised
by irrigation or without it, provided
the water is there at the right time
and in the right quantity, he proclaims
his ignorance of the functions of wa
ter in plant life. What makes the diff
ference in the size, color, and quality
of fruit, the water supply being suf-
ficient, are the constituents of the soil
and it's condition and the presence of
abundant sunlight and heat.
1t is thought by some that the light
colored soil commonly known as vol
canic ash cannot be as fertile as the
black loans of the Mississippi Val
ley. This is a great mistake. l have
raised fruit in the Middle West as we'll
as in Washington, and never saw trees
grow so rapidly nor come into bearing
so early anywhere as they do in the
volcanic ash soils in the intermountain
states. The fact is, these light ashy
soils are immensely rich. This has
been shown by the government experts
who have analysed them. In arid and
semi-arid countries the soils are un-
leached, but where copious rains have
been falling for ages, the fertility to
large extent has been washed into the
lower stratas or washed away entirely.
1t is we'll known that leached ashes are
not nearly so fertile as the unleached.
The same is true of soils. People who
have lived in countries where the soil
is black come to associate blackness
and richness as inseparably joined to-
gether, but this is not the case. 1t is
the presence of humus that makes soil
black, but this blackness remains after
the fertility has been largely washed
away by copious rains. The enormous
growth of trees and plants in the light
colored soils has been a matter OF
wonder to persons who have always
lived where the soils are black, and
they have been compelled to revise
their ideas.