State Agricultural Society. 439 



the two rows of piling as fast as it could be dumped in. To overcome 

 this a sufficient number of stout sails were procured to extend the entire 

 length of the dam. Heavy sand bags were attached to one end of the 

 sails. A gang of men, as many as could stand side by side on the dam, 

 strung the sails with the bags attached from one end to the other. A 

 powerful current poured over the top of the piles, and against this the 

 men slowly shoved the line of bags until it rested on the edge of the 

 upper row of piling. At a word the bags were pushed over and imme- 

 diately sunk to the bottom, the upper edge of the sails remaining 

 attached to the top of the piles. The sails formed an effectual barrier 

 to prevent the current pouring between the piles, and though the entire 

 volume of water now flowed over the top, the operation of filling in 

 between the two rows of piles was successfully prosecuted, and soon 

 the main dam was completed. 



This dam turns the water into the main canal through a sluice. The 

 gates of this sluice also work so as to allow the water to flow over them. 

 The advantage of this arrangement over that of allowing the water to 

 flow under the gates, is that in the latter case the stream, under the pres- 

 sure of the "head" behind the gate, is discharged into the canal at a 

 high velocity, tending to cut away the banks; in the former case the 

 stream tumbles into the sluice by a waterfall, the energy of which is 

 expended in boiling around in the sluice, Avhence it flows into the canal 

 in a tranquil stream. 



The dimensions of the canal are: width at bottom, thirty-two feet; 

 slope of banks, three horizontal to one vertical; depth of water, six feet; 

 width of water at surface, therefore, sixty-eight feet. The banks are 

 carried two feet above the surface of the water, and are made wide 

 enough on top for a tow-path and foot-way respectively. Eunning in a 

 line substantially parallel with the axis of the valley, the fierce winds 

 which sweep over these plains from north to south throughout the Sum- 

 mer season raise a strong ripple on the waters of the canal, actually 

 curling the waves over into small " white-caps," and illustrating with 

 some force the old song anent '•' the raging canawl." This ripple is, how- 

 ever, a source of substantial inconvenience in washing away the adobe 

 banks of the work. To counteract it, these banks are being lined with 

 brush pinned to the bank with the butts upward, which has been found 

 to give the needed protection. Up to the present date the canal has 

 been run with only four feet depth of water; the work done this year, 

 now approaching completion, has been to raise the banks so as to admit 

 the full depth of six feet of water. The present lower terminus of the 

 canal is at Kreyenhagen's, in Merced County, forty miles below its head 

 at Fresno Slough, and seventy miles above Moore's Landing — the head of 

 permanent navigation on the San Joaquin. Kreyenhagen's is one hun- 

 dred miles from Antioch, in Contra Costa County. The canal company 

 has proposed to the farmers and land owners between Kreyenhagen's 

 and Moore's Landing, to subscribe a portion of the stock necessary to 

 extend the work to that point; or if sufficient stock should be sub- 

 scribed for, the work would be carried to Antioch — the more advanta- 

 geous plan. Neither proposition has been responded to. The purpose 

 of the company is to suspend further extension northwardly for the 

 present. To the south, connection will be made between Fresno Slough 

 and Tulare Lake by way of Fish and Buena Vista Sloughs, heretofore 

 described, by cutting through the isthmuses which now separate those 

 channels. Navigation will thus be established between the lake with 

 the vast area of country accessible to it and Kreyenhagen's. When the 



