308 WATER MONOPOLY AND IRRIGATION. 



for the good of society is also a maxim well understood and happily 

 appreciated in this Republic. 



There are but few localities in this country that water cannot be 

 had in from eight to thirty feet from the surface. Surely, then, any 

 man can contrive means to water ten acres in trees with a simple 

 lift pump, windmill or horse-power, and those who can afford it could 

 have an Ericsson engine which is the cheapest and simplest means 

 in which the agency of heat is brought to bear as a power. It can 

 be started in the morning with a basket of chips or corn cobs, the 

 door closed on it and when the fuel goes out the engine stops its 

 work, and there is neither danger or trouble attending it. We should 

 all have tanks and reservoirs, for when we want to use our water 

 we must have it in a greater body than a pump or even an artesian 

 well can supply it. Wherever there is a natural depression on our 

 lands or a ravine, we should throw an embankment across it and 

 construct our ponds. They will be our greatest wealth, food for 

 ducks and geese. 



You can raise your own fish, and these ponds will be found better 

 than any manure pile, with the grand advantage that its own grav 

 ity will distribute it on our fields without the aid of cart or shovel, 

 only requiring intelligent direction to guide it in its mission of good. 

 Every owner of an artesian well has the power at hand to drive hy 

 draulic rams; they are the cheapest motive power in existence and 

 nearer perpetual motion than any contrivance yet invented. They 

 are always in repair and can be used to raise the flow of your arte 

 sian wells to elevated tanks and reservoirs, which will enable the 

 farmer to utilize his high or elevated slopes and supply the econ 

 omy of his chambers, kitchen and barn yard. 



Some of the ideas advanced may seem bold and novel, but when 

 I first advanced the idea in my annual message, 1861, to the Legis 

 lature that stock-raisers had a co-equal obligation to prevent tres 

 pass as the cultivator to defend it, it was looked upon as equally 

 novel and bold; the result, however, shows that land never assumed 

 value nor stock a price in this country until it was adopted, although 

 some of my best friends denounced it as wild and visionary. 



I have given this subject of irrigation much thought: I have had 

 much experience in the distribution of water; I have had friendly 

 litigation as riparian proprietor, with my good friend ex-Governor 

 Pico. Fourteen years ago he had a few straggling Sonorinos culti 

 vating perhaps in all 1,000 acres, and I could not obtain water be 

 low him to irrigate sixty acres; he declared there was not water 

 enough for himself. There are now 12,000 acres in cultivation on 

 what was then my farm, and with proper management we can irri 

 gate to the sea with the same supply that then existed. The same 

 example will apply to the Los Angeles and Santa Ana rivers. That 

 it requires bold and comprehensive legislation will be apparent to 

 all thinking men; that American citizens will submit to any equita 

 ble law, passed by the Legislature for the preservation and just dis 

 tribution of the waters of our rivers and streams, their history in 

 the past will warrant. 



That the time has arrived for legislative action to be taken is 

 patent to all, and that it should be general and properly guarded is 

 manifest from the general voice of the w r hole people. 



