USE OF STEAM. 223 



and if the water is used at all it must be elevated. When 

 it is considered that one bushel of coal contains a latent 

 power within it, sufficient to elevate to a hight of one 

 foot, 50,000,000, (fifty millions), pounds of water, or a 

 less quantity to a proportionately greater hight, the future 

 probabilities of the use of steam pumps in irrigation, 

 will not seem to be misjudged. All that is necessary is 

 to consume the coal beneath a boiler, and apply the 

 power of the steam in the most economical manner, with 

 the best constructed engines and pumps, to the work of 

 bringing the water where it is required. At the present 

 time water is thus procured by one farmer at least, in 

 California, who employs a steam engine and a pump, to 

 raise water from a well, for the irrigation of his crop of 

 vegetables for the Sacramento market. The high price 

 procured for his product, is offset to some extent by the 

 high price of coal, which costs in that locality from $18 

 to $20 per ton. Where coal is much cheaper, the gain 

 would go to offset the probable lower prices of the pro 

 duct. Yet in many localities, where market crops are 

 raised, it would undoubtedly pay to employ steam power 

 to raise the water, either from streams or wells. If from 

 wells, reservoirs or tanks would be required, both for the 

 purpose of gaining the necessary head for distribution, 

 and for the warming of the water. 



There is a large variety of pumps that may be used for 

 this purpose, that are of great capacity. 



No mechanical power that we possess is so cheap, or 

 so effective as steam. The effective energy contained in 

 one bushel of coal being able to elevate six million gal 

 lons of water one foot high, or a million gallons six feet 

 high, or a hundred thousand gallons 60 feet high, it be 

 comes only a question if the cost of coal and that of the 

 application of the power, will enable us to use it profitably. 

 It is not to be doubted that in some cases now, and in 

 numberless cases in the future, the possibility of the use 



