The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1912-05-02
Irrigation Is another of the western

irrigation Is another OF the western
problems In this day we hear a
good deal about raising orchards with
cut irrigation or with a very small
number of irrigations 1t is probably
true that many orchards have been
over-irrigated in the past, but there
will be still greater disappointment in
the future if we go to the extreme and
think we are going to raise fruit with
out irrigation water. 1t is easy enough
to raise trees and many orchards have
been raisedS up to the bearing time
with very small use of water, but
when a crop of fruit has to be ripen-
ed right at the very dryest time of
the year when wood growth has prac-
tically ceased and otherwise the tree
would be using very little moisture, it
will be found that an orchard requires
as much water as any other crop and
If the water is short at that time a
few days may ruin the entire efforts
Of the year. There is also another
factor to be kept in mind in the use
Of the irrigation water, and that is
that the fruit buds for the next sea
sons crop must be developed during
the last part Of July and August of
the proceeding year, just at the time
that the greatest drain is made on the
tree by the growing crop. In our irri-
gation experiments on peaches, We
have been able by withholding water
at this time to absolutely stop the de-
velopment of fruit buds.
There is also another factor to be
considered in irrigating the orchard.
Enthusiastic orchardists will take one
out, point to young orchard and say
Look at that, it has never had drop
of water and l have looked many
times and have seen trees fine and
healthy in appearance, but only half
or even one third the size they would
have been had they been irrigated,
and capable of carrying only very
small lead Of fruit, even if they had
plenty of moisture to mature it, so
that even if the orchard be irrigated
from that time on it would be three
or four years behind an irrigated or
chard in it's producing power On the
other hand, in our peach experiments,
we have found that the rows that had
the greatest amount of water and made
the largest wood growth. Then when
it came time to mature the fruit the
immense amount of foliage took up SO
much of the water that it was impoS-
sible to develop the fruit to the prop
er size. The happy medium, therefore,
is sufficient amount of water sprouts
and sappy wood, rather light appli-
cation of water in the earlier part Of
much wood growth, but an abundance
at the time when the fruit is ripening
and the fruit buds are developing.
| saw an orchard this year in
which everything that l have describ
ed to you so far had teen done and ap-
parently we'll done-the orchard was
bearing from nine to twelve hundred
bushels of apples per acre and yeti the
crop was practically worthless. There
is, therefore, one more factor to be
considered and that is thinning. This
orchard was a Gano, Jonathan, Ben
Davis orchard of about fifteen years
old, and each tree had three to five
thousand little bits of under-siZfd
shrunken apples. The apples were of
ing dwon and being ruined. If half or
two-thirds of those apples had been
out in the beginning of the
season, the remainder would have pro-
duced a crop as heavy as the trees
could bear of better developed and
size apples. There would
have been enough vitality in the tree
to develop fruit buds for another year
and everybody would have been happy.
AS it is, this orchardist got an i'm
mense crop of unstable fruit and next
year his orchard will not bear at all,
since it is impossible for a tree to feed
fruit buds under such an excessive
load. Two or three cents expended in
would have made so cents diff
ference in the worth of these apples
in the fall.
And, by the way, while | think Of
it, let me suggest to you that you be-
gin thinning as soon as young tees
first begin to bear. The first year or
so that young orchard begins bear
ing the crop is not worth the expense
Of spraying and handling, the trees
need all of their energy to develop
framework for carrying the loads of
the future years and in every way 1t
is better to pull off the few apples
that appear here and there; and yet
TO the man that is developing the
) Dung orchard it is too much like pull
ing tooth to pull off one of these
apples. For this reason it is good dis
cpline. If you begin at that time and