LIFTING WATER FOR IRRIGATION 181 



reservoir about 1^4 inches. This would make it tight. The supply pipe should 

 come up from the bottom, so that the lift would never be tnore than the height 

 of the surface. 



Loss of Water by Seepage. The great loss of Water by seepage 

 during a long run has led to the cementing of ditches, and to the use 

 of miles of large wooden, concrete and iron pipe by the irrigation 

 companies of Southern California; also, where the slope is rapid, 

 paving ditches with rock has been resorted to. Similar efforts naturally 

 suggest themselves to the user of a small water supply to save his 

 flow from loss. The lining of ditches to prevent seepage is being 

 tested by the California Experiment Station at Berkeley, and publica- 

 tion of results is being made.* Where lumber is cheap the use of a 

 board flume is an available means of saving water, when the soil is 

 coarse and leachy. 



Irrigation from Flowing Wells. A considerable area of orchard 

 is irrigated from flowing wells in different parts of the State. Nearly 





End view of irrigating wheel. 



everywhere in the artesian districts there are local well-borers who 

 have kept records of the strata traversed in their work, and can 

 estimate closely the cost of securing water by this method. 



Lifting Water from Flowing Ditch or Stream. Where a stream 

 has a rapidity of two miles or more per hour, and a lift to a height of 

 six to sixteen feet will give head enough to distance the water over 

 a considerable area, there is nothing cheaper than the current wheel 

 which is largely used in this State. The engraving gives an end view 

 of such a wheel. Eight pairs of arms, carrying flat buckets like those 

 of a steamboat paddle-wheel, extend from a hub rotating on metal 

 bearings. At either end, or both ends, of each bucket are fixed wooden 

 or tin water boxes which fill themselves on entering the water, and 

 on being brought to the highest point of rotation empty themselves 

 into a receiving trough. This trough supplies the distributing ditches, 



*Bulletin 188 and Circular 114, University of California Experiment Station, Berkeley. 



