STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 301 



IRRIGATION IN YOLO COUNTY. 



STATEMENT OF JUDGE J. H. HUTTON, OF CACHEVILLE. 



The Cacheville Agricultural Ditch is taken from Cache Creek, five miles 

 above the Village of Cacheville, where the main ditch terminates. Entire 

 length of main ditch, five miles, with lateral branches of say thirty miles 

 in length, constructed in the spring of eighteen hundred and sixt_y; Avidth 

 of ditch, fifteen feet on the bottom; fall, one half inch to the hundred feet; 

 cajjacity of ditch, about sixty-eight cubic feet. 



ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION, 



The fact is clearly demonstrated that the Sacramento Yalley cannot 

 be relied upon as an agricultural section without resorting to artificial 

 means of irrigation ; and experience has abundantly proven, that, by 

 irrigation, the soil in this valley will produce everything in the way of 

 grain, hay, vegetables, fruit, etc., equal in quantity and quality, to any 

 other section of the State. 



It has been found by practical experience that the advantage to crops 

 by irrigation are as follows, as nearly as can be ascertained : that in the 

 most favorable seasons the yield of small grain, and especially such as 

 are late sowed, may bo increased l)y a judicious system of irrigation, 

 from one quarter to one third in quantity ; in ordipary seasons from one 

 third to one half, and in the dryest seasons, when the crops fail entirely 

 without it, by irrigation we get the ordinary yield, say from thirty to 

 fifty bushels per acre. And as to corn, vegetables, and fruit, which can- 

 not be successfull}^ produced without irrigation, are by it grown in great 

 abundance, and excellent in quality. As to the proper or best time to 

 irrigate, there seems to be a dilfcrence of ojiinion upon that point among 

 those that have experimented. Some are of the opinion that for grain- 

 raising the liest time to irrigate is in the spring; say the montiis of 

 March and April; while others believe that in the fall, or early part of 

 winter, before the land is ploughed or the crop planted, is the better 

 time. But in my judgment it would seem to be immaterial as to the par- 

 ticular time, for in any year, if the land is flooded and well saturated, 

 any time from the first of November to the first of May, it warrants a 

 good crop of grain. So it would seem tiiat the particular time of irri- 

 gating is not so important, but as a matter of economy where there is 



