Another most valuable fertilizer generally wasted is the trimmings. In our careless California farming, these trimmings of the vines are put in piles on the roads, outside of the vineyards, and there burned. Thus the ground loses the most powerful soluble salt, which would greatly increase the yield of grapes and the profits to the farmer. Where the vines are planted far enough apart, the trimmings may be burned between the rows of the vines without injury to them, but, when the vines are set close, there is no other way than to carefully collect the ashes and spread them evenly over the soil. Some vineyardists use large troughs made of galvanized iron and perforated with holes. These vats are drawn through the vineyard by a team, and scatter the ashes evenly over the soil. The vats may be so constructed that the cuttings are burned in them directly as they are being pulled along, thus saving much labor as well as ashes. Such contrivances will probably only prove profitable in large vineyards, where there are long rows and few turnings for the teams. Even the stable manure in our State is not used as it should be. It is hardly possible to understand how vineyardists can be thoughtless enough to haul loads upon loads of stable manure on their roads or in holes and waste places, while their vines adjoining are suffering from the want of sufficient nourishment. In the irrigated districts, this is a very common sight, and the wet places on the road are often deep with manure and strongly smelling of ammonia. If the manure had been placed around the vines, the increase in crops would probably have been sufficient to enable the owner to macadamize or otherwise permanently fix the roads. IRRIGATION. _Introductory Notes._--The irrigation of the raisin grapes was, for several years, considered as a practice entirely peculiar to California, but as our knowledge extended it was found that, far from being anything at all new, it had been practiced successfully for centuries in some of the Mediterranean countries. We have already mentioned how irrigation is customary both in the Valencia and Denia districts, as well as in Greece. It is evident that irrigation there is only limited by the supply of water, and that there is no question about its usefulness. As regards the methods of irrigation in these foreign countries, we beg to refer to the chapters treating of these countries. Here our efforts shall be to consider irrigation in its relation to the following points, which are of more general interest to the Californian growers: Necessity of irrigating the raisin-vines; the health of irrigated vines; the bearing quality of irrigated vines; the quality of the irrigated grape; supposed unhealthiness of irrigated vineyards; irrigation by flooding; irrigation by furrowing; subirrigation; seepage; drainage; irrigation and its influence on the soil.