The new era. (Walden, Colo.) 1906-19??, 1911-10-19
WATER AND HARDPAN
First Care Is to Get Water Deep
Iy Into the Soil.
Rapid Evaporation From the Surface
Promptly Arrests tho Downward
seepase and the capiIiarIty 10
Then Upward.

The first care of the orchard irriga-
tor is to get water deeply into the soil
without flooding or pudding the sur
face. 1t is not after all SO much mat
ter OF the number of inches used as
the deep diffusion of the water through
the soil to the full depth of the natural
roofing Of the tree. In this dry eli
mate. II the first two or three feet OF
the soil are quickly saturated with
water. perhaps sufficient for six feet
of healthy moisture, and then the irrI-
cation is stopped, the rapid evapora-
ton from the surface soil will prompt
ly arrest the downward seepage and
the capillarity will be upward, so
that none will go into the subsoil The
subsoil will then gradually dry out and
harden and each repetition Of this OPP
Grafton will aggravate the subsoil con-
iitions until a hardpan Is formed into
which the water will not seep readily.
This results in the lower roots of the
tree being encased in hard, dry soil to
become inactive or even die. writes E.
j. Wickson in the Denver Field and
Farm.
Another evil of this condition Is that
at each irrigation the air is driven out
of the upper soil 80 that the roots in
1t are smothered, followed by such
evils as gum disease. die-back, paling
foliage and fruit dropping. for we see
the tree unable to obtain sufficient
water to properly dilute the food elab-
Grated in the leaves, or to keep 1t in
proper solution for distribution
throughout the tree. and carry 1t to the
roots for the work Of root extension
and mineral solution. All attempts to
remedy this by the application Of ma
nures and mulch to supply dissolvents.
or such delicately soluble salts as nj
trates to stimulate the solution. are
only temporarily beneficial and in the
long run bring on the greater compli-
cations.
Few irrigators know much about
how water acts In the soil, as they
only see the surface and warrant the
criticism Of Wilcox In his Irrigation
Farming that "unskilled labor has a
penalty of twenty-five to fifty per cent.
attached to 1t in the application OF
water and unfortunately this class is
too prevalent in the irrigating fields"
One Of the mistakes often observable
on heavy soils is the running of five or
six burrows between each row of trees.
whereas three or four are sufficient
The burrows should be no nearer than
sufficient to allow the water of each to
sink in independently. tanning out to
meet below. II streams are 30 close
that they mingle In their downward
course a foot or two below the sur.
face they cause pudding of the soil
and consequent driving up of air, which
in a short time arrests the downward
action of the water, making it seep
more and more slowly, until practi
cal standstill occurs. The result is
generally hardpan.
| AS irrigation is usually practical but
one way through the orchard deep
| subsoil track or tunnel should be run
| half way between the trees transversely
the streams. Tnis can be done with a
small tool on a sub-soil pillow shank
| big enough to make track about the
size Of gopher run at depth of f1f-
| teen to twenty inches. The benefits
accomplished by this are the dissem
ination of water all around the trees
the more rapid spreading of the water
without driving out the air. as in the
deep furrow. and the carrying Of the
air deep down into the soil, thus as
sisting irrigation. This may be OBJ
jected to as a root pruning operation
which 1t certainly is, and on this &C
count 1t is not practical in all sea
sons. This is to be regretted because
1t is great advantage to irrigation.