State Agricultural Society. 423 



miles of the foothills of the Sierra, is " hog wallow." The surface thus 

 designated may be represented on a small scale by covering the bottom 

 of a milk pan with eggs distributed so that their longer axis shall lie at 

 every irregularity of angle with one another, and then pour in water 

 till it is more than half the depth of the layer of eggs. The surface 

 of the water and the surfaces of those portions of the eggs which 

 rise above it, together constitute a surface which is a fair representa- 

 tion of that of hog-wallow land. It is obvious that this is a sort of 

 land that cannot be irrigated at all. 



Besides the hog- wallow there is an important area of land which may 

 be designated as " billowy," the surface of which rises and falls in long 

 undulations, which, though slight, are sufficiently marked to manifest 

 themselves to the unassisted eye. In irrigating a surface which departs 

 from an absolute inclined plane, it is essential to carry the distributing 

 ditches over lines which shall take in succession the most' elevated 

 points. On billowy lands such lines will be sinuous, increasing the 

 length of ditch necessary to be constructed in order to serve a given 

 area. Between said highest points the lines pass over depressions; the 

 construction of each ditch will involve, therefore, an alteration of cuts 

 and fills, increasing its cost per unit of length. Thus it is seen that 

 these billowy lands require not only a greater length of ditch to irri- 

 gate a given area, but, also, that the ditch is more costly to construct. 

 In the third place, it here becomes impossible to lay the water upon the 

 land by a system of parallel furrows leading in a common direction 

 away from a main farm ditch — it becomes necessary to lead the water 

 from the summit of each "billow" by a system of furrows radiating 

 from that point over its entire surface. Although it is practicable to do 

 this, yet the detail of accomplishing it is so much more costly and 

 troublesome than the same work would be on more level land, that it is 

 evident the latter will command a steady preference, and be first thus 

 improved. The quantity Of these more level lands is so enormous that 

 years must elapse before they will be fully occupied, or the occupation 

 of the billowj^ lands be generally begun. These may, therefore, be 

 added to the bog-wallow as being beyond the scope of any immediate 

 scheme of irrigation. Besides which, it may be mentioned that most of 

 the hog-wallow, and much of the more level land, is a shallow soil, 

 underlaid by hard-pan. Eliminating the hog-wallow and billowy land, 

 which constitute, perhaps, nearly one half of all the land on the east 

 side of the San Joaquin, between the Tuolumne and King's Rivers, we 

 have left the vast area of the " west side " — the whole of which, north 

 of Firebaugh's Perry, is nearly an absolute inclined plane, and, also, the 

 larger part of the east side — a perfect plain to the eye, but upon which 

 the instrument discloses an irregularity of surface to which the word 

 "uneven" may be applied. "Uneven" though we call this, it is more 

 even than any of the land north of Stockton, excepting some three or 

 four isolated fields in the immediate vicinity of that city. It is so even 

 that the eye cannot detect the direction of its inclination, nor the slight- 

 est intimation of irregularity on the surface. But the engineer's level, 

 determining the lines for distributing ditches by seeking the highest 

 points, sends them sweeping around in great curves, tracing their 

 course like the track of huge serpents over the plain. As the ditches 

 follow the lines of elevation it follows that between them, and more or 

 less nearly parallel to them, lie corresponding lines of greatest depres- 

 sion. The practical problem in the application of irrigation here will 

 be to conduct the water from the high lines to the adjacent low ones on 



