47 



Seven plants iisiiii; city Avater irripito 61 acres, th(> avera|2;e cost of 

 plant per acre bein*:; $44, while the cost per acre on individual ])lants 

 varies from $12 on farm No. 18 to $188 on No. 44. The average lixed 

 charges on the basis assumed are thus nearly $9 per acre annually. 



Six gravity systems irrigate 15 acres, the first cost varying from 

 practically nothing in Nos. 11 and 12 to $100 per acre in No. 6, where 

 a supply had to be developed. 



Seventeen pumj)ing plants, irrigating ;)88 acres, cost an average of 

 $74 per acre, the least cost being $27 for No. 29 and the greatest being 

 $455 for No. 27. The average fixed charges may be put at about $15 

 per acre. 



The cost of city water is quite uniform, averaging in fifteen cases 

 $1.11 per 1,000 cubic feet, or about $48 per acre-foot. As the depth 



Fig. C— Nozzle. 



applied aA^erages about 4 inches, the cost of city water per acre is $16. 

 The reasonable cost of pumpi.ig can hardly be determined froi.i the 

 small amount of data availaljle, but comparison with skillfid western 

 practice shows that the exj^ense is unnecessarih^ high, due to several 

 causes. In most pumping plants in the West the amount of piping 

 used is small, and the pressure against w^hich the pump operates is 

 practically the lift alone. In the East, wdth the pipe distributing 

 systems, the friction head and discharge head are often far in excess of 

 the actual lift, necessitating much larger power plants and fuel con- 

 sumption. Any system of sprinkling requires at least 20 feet dis- 

 charge head for hand sprinkling and twace as much for w^ater witches, 

 and larger heads are decidedly preferable. In any extended distribut- 

 ing pipe system there wdll necessarily be large friction losses in the 



