IRRIGATION OF ARID LANDS. 365 



costs anywhere in the neighborhood of one thousand dollars a 

 mile. 



Wherever the water comes from, it is usually conveyed into a 

 tank or a reservoir, and then piped or ditched about over the farm 

 wherever needed. A hand pump is a rarity in southern Cali- 

 fornia. A windmill pumps the water into a high tank, which 

 gives it the pressure needed for sprinkling. Hydrants are placed 

 at the house, at the barn, in the garden, in the orchard, and at 

 other points. With plenty of hose the fire protection is admi- 

 rable. The farmer's wife is as well off as her city cousin in the 

 matter of water conveniences. 



Running through iron pipes near the surface of a blistering 

 hot soil, the water gets warm, not to say hot, and so it does stand- 

 ing in the tank over the well. When wanted for drinking, it is 

 put into a porous earthen jar called an alia, and the evaporation 

 of the large part which soaks through the jar cools the contents. 

 Always in the morning, and nearly always throughout the day, 

 you can get a drink as cool as the stomach ought to have. Some- 

 times a barrel, covered with a cloth kept wet, is used for the same 

 purpose. 



The water thus piped to various points on the farm is some- 

 times carried from the hydrants through ditches which run along 

 the highest parts of the ground. These ditches are the simplest 

 possible in construction. They go winding about like natural 

 streams. Sometimes a furrow of the large farm-plow answers 

 every purpose. For the capillaries of the circulation the furrows 

 made between the rows of vegetables in cultivating them are 

 quite sufficient. When you have irrigated a few rows, a hoeful 

 or two of earth applied to each furrow stops the water from them, 

 and then the dam is removed farther down the main stream, and 

 more rows are irrigated in the same way. 



The method of irrigating trees is different. A circular de- 

 pression, with a raised rim, is made about the tree. In a large 

 orange orchard this is done with a machine a kind of compli- 

 cated scraper dragged around each tree by horses. The saucer 

 thus formed may be fifteen or twenty feet, but is usually much 

 less, in diameter. The water is turned into it from a hose or 

 through a surface ditch. An orange grove never looks prettier 

 than when thus prepared for irrigation. Sometimes, instead of 

 the circular basin about each tree, small ridges are thrown up 

 midway between the rows, in both directions. This makes a 

 larger irrigated surface, and, of course, requires more water. 



All these methods of irrigation are simply extensions of ordi- 

 nary garden watering. I have seen two other quite different 

 methods in operation. One of them is the simplest and cheapest, 

 the other the most complicated and expensive of all. 



