After the water has been flowing in this manner for some hours,
it is shut off, for it has done enough work. In a day or two the
ranchman runs the cultivator over the ground of the orchard, leaving the
soil fine and crumbly and the trees in perfect condition for another six
or eight weeks of growth.
The first attempts of the American immigrant at irrigation were very
simple--just the making of a furrow turning the water of a stream upon
his land. Then, as he desired to cultivate more land and raise larger
crops, his ditches had to be longer, often having branches. Soon
neighbors came in and settled above and below him. They too used of the
stream; there was no law to control selfishness, so there were
disagreements and bitter quarrels over the water. Lawsuits followed and
sometimes even fighting and murders. The remedy for this state of things
was found to be in a company ditch, flume, or reservoir, with the use of
water controlled by fixed laws.
There are some crops, notably grapes, which are grown without
irrigation. The grapevine, instead of being treated as a climber, is
each year trimmed back to the main stem, which thus becomes a strong
woody stalk, often a foot or more in circumference, quite capable of
withstanding the heat and dryness of the atmosphere and of drawing from
the soil all the nourishment needed for the fruit.
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