There is no characteristic and permanent difference between waters from wells and waters from streams so far as irrigation is concerned.  The character depends upon the sources from which both are derived.  Some wells may carry too much mineral matter in the form of salt, alkali, etc., and some stream waters sometimes carry considerable alkali.  For this reason some wells may be better than streams and some streams better than wells.  There is no general rule in the matter.  Your neighbor may be right as applied to your location, and may know from his experience that the well water carries too much undesirable material.  That could only be determined by analysis, and the analysis must be made when the water is rather low, because during the rainy season, or soon after it, the water may have less mineral impurity than later in the season when it may be more concentrated.

Shall He Irrigate or Cultivate?

Our soil is of an excellent quality, and I feel if the moisture were properly conserved by suitable methods it could be made to produce fruits or some other very much more profitable than from hay and grain crops.

Whether you can grow deciduous fruits successfully without irrigation depends not only upon how well you conserve the moisture by cultivation, but also whether the total rainfall conveys water enough, even if as much as possible of it is conserved.  Again, you might find that thorough cultivation will give you satisfactory young trees, but would not conserve moisture enough for the same trees when they come into bearing.  This proposition should be studied locally.  If you can find trees in the vicinity which do give satisfactory fruit under the rainfall, you would have a practical demonstration which would be more trustworthy than any forecast which could be prepared upon theoretical grounds.

Condensation for Irrigation.

If a circular funnel of waterproofed building paper, or some better cheap device, were fastened about the base of the tree in such a manner as to catch and concentrate most of the drippings from the leaves, and that water made to run down through a tube leading a suitable depth into the earth, it seems to me that the number of foggy nights that occur in many localities during the season might thus supply ample water for a tree’s needs.

The probability is that water would not be secured in sufficient quantities to serve any notable irrigation purposes, or if the fogs were so thick as to yield water enough, the sunshine would be too scant for the success of the plant.  Put your idea to the test and see how much water you could get from a tree of definite leaf area, which could be readily estimated.

Winter Irrigation.

Last May I irrigated my prune trees for the first time, again during the first two weeks of last December.  If no rain should come within the next two weeks, would you advise me to irrigate then?  Should I plow before irrigating, or should irrigation be done before the buds swell?