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> they would plant them upside down

That makes no sense. It takes more effort to plant a tree upside down and not irrigating it than it takes to plant it the regular way and not irrigating it.

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They didn’t want the trees to suck up limited water, but wanted to still say they planted the trees. My guess is that ground water and run off was involved, they weren’t going to irrigate it either way because they couldn’t.

Maybe if the trees are planted correctly and are still alive, the government would requires the farmers to water them or face punishment, leaving no water for the crops.

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