328 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Jenares ; and the engineer mentions it as a fact of great importance, 

 that while the average of population of Spain is only eighty-one to the 

 square mile, the population in one section of irrigated gardens rises to 

 one thousand six hundred and eighty-one to the square mile; and in 

 another section, to seven hundred and sixty-seven ; and he reports it as 

 a well established fact, that crops raised upon lands judiciously irrigated 

 are of better quality and in greater quantity than those produced by dry 

 culture. 



The great need of California now is an opportunity for diversified 

 crops, ever green and ever growing, to include the grasses of the East- 

 ern States, for hay. which, in the opinion of scientific men as well as 

 practical farmers, will flourish here by irrigation, and never will with- 

 out it. 



The marvellous productiveness of the soil of California has excited the 

 wonder of the world, even more than its abundant yield of gold. Our 

 rainless summer of six months is the only great drawback upon our 

 agriculture upon the plains; and I know no way of arresting the dete- 

 rioration of their overcropped soil when long cultivated, and of preserv- 

 ing forever the native fertility of that portion of it which has nut come 

 under the plough, except by the free use of water, loaded, as the melt- 

 ing snows of the mountains always are, with fertilizing matter from 

 decaying vegetation and decomposing rocks. It is more lasting in its 

 effects than the artificial composts which are now so much employed 

 in the agriculture of other countries, and which can be applied with 

 safety in California only in connection with water. The primaiy 

 object of artificial irrigation is to supply to the soil the requisite of 

 moisture, in which the climate is in some countries occasionally, and in 

 others, like California, periodically deficient ; and as thorough drainage 

 is a condition of the improved culture which follows it, lands which are 

 prepared for irrigation are better protected against the excess of wet as 

 well as drought, than similar lands under the dry culture. With a sys- 

 tem of works, properly planned and executed, for the irrigation of the 

 great plains of California, she would be relieved from a great portion of 

 the loss sustained in floods like eighteen hundred and sixty-one and 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-two and droughts like eighteen hundred aud 

 sixtj-three and eighteen hundred and sixty-four. 



WATER. RIGHTS. 



The right to withdraw water from a stream ami apply it to irrigation 

 requires a grant from the sovereign, and in older countries is geuerally 

 obtained by purchase at high prices. The State of California permits 

 her citizens to appropriate the waters of streams, not navigable under an 

 imnlied grant, without application for it and without charge. This 

 appropriation, which consists in the exercise of due diligence in the 

 building of the necessary canals for its conveyance, and the condition of 

 its application to useful purposes, invests the appropriator with the first 

 right to the use of the water, and the continuance of that right unless 

 he abandons it ; aud thus it becomes a species of property, the value of 

 which, prospectively, if not at present, may be inferred from the price 

 lately fixed by the G-overnment of Spain upon waters supplied to the 

 Jenares Canal. The area of land to be irrigated by it is twenty-seven 

 thousand one hundred and seventy acres, and the quantity of water 

 utilized for the purpose is one hundred and seventy-five cubic feet per 

 second. The price charged by the Government is one thousand eight 



