48 



pipe, since pipes ]ari!:e enough to cut dowai this loss would be too 

 expensive. 



The actual lifts of pumping plants in the East vary from 13 to 80 

 feet, while total pressure heads of 150 to 200 feet are not uncommon, and 

 in one plant the pressure head was 340 feet, of which only 32 feet was 

 actual lift. In other words, the power was eleven times that required 

 to lift the water. On an average, the total head is probably three 

 times the lift. Where elevated tanks are used, the work of pumping is 

 often increased two or tlu-ee times. In many places the power plant 

 installed is fully six times as large as would be necessary were the 

 water to be elevated only to the highest point of the groimd to be 

 irrigated. 



Of twelve cases, the average of the cost per acre-foot for fuel and 

 labor is $13.15 where steam power is used. Adding to this the fixed 



C±: 



Fiii. 7.— Multiple sprinkler. 



charges given above, the total cost of providing and distributing 

 water, but not applying it, is $28 per acre-foot. A cost of $28 per 

 acre-foot for water delivered at the point wh(Te it is ready to be 

 applied to the fields is very high in comparison with western costs. 

 In six plants using gasoline engines the average cost for gasoline 

 per acre-foot pumped is $2.91, as against $6.18 for fuel alone for coal 

 plants. This difi'erence is due to the greater heads und(>r which the 

 coal plants operate — perhaps four times the average head for the 

 gasoline plants — and to the use of direct-acting steam pumps, which 

 are very wasteful of steam. Gasoline plants should be more widel}' 

 adopted in the East, except where steam j^lauts obtain their steam 

 from boilers used for other purposes, such as heating in the winter 



