182 CALIFORNIA FRUITS I HOW TO GROW THEM 



etc., and its inner end is so placed that it comes under the projecting 

 buckets of the wheel without interference with the motion of the arms. 

 The current of water in the channel underneath forces the buckets 

 down stream, the latter delivering in the opposite direction at the top. 

 By using a double set of boxes, one at each end of each bucket, the 

 water may be delivered on both sides simultaneously. A little experi- 

 menting will indicate the proper size boxes, which depends upon the 

 velocity and volume of water in the channel, as well as to the amount to 

 be delivered. 



At the Fancher Creek Nursery, in Fresno county, a wheel is used 

 eighteen feet in diameter, and carries sixteen buckets, which empty 

 into a trough sixteen feet above the ditch. The wheel lifts about one 

 cubic foot in two seconds. 



PUMPING FOR IRRIGATION 



The use of pumps for irrigation is continually increasing. The 

 capacity of pumps, their ease and cheapness of operation in this land 

 of oil wells and of ponderous waterfalls whose power can be trans- 

 formed into electric energy, warrant the conclusion that in many places 

 water can be lifted from below more cheaply than it can be brought 

 long distances by ditch; and that the supply is more constant and 

 subject to the users' command and convenience. In all parts of the 

 State well-boring and digging and pump construction have advanced 

 very rapidly. Pumping plants of all capacities, from the greatest of 

 the gasoline class, lifting five thousand gallons per minute from a 

 depth of twenty-five feet, down to the plant with a throw of three 

 hundred gallons per minute, all styles of motors and pumps are being 

 constantly multiplied. These plants are being placed upon wells in 

 the orchard or in the vicinity, or upon adjacent streams or ponds. 

 Many new designs by California inventors are coming into use. It 

 would require a volume to contain any adequate account California's 

 recent progress in these lines. Economic pumping is governed by so 

 many considerations that no general statement would be conclusive in 

 any specific case. Each orchardist must ascertain his own conditions 

 and then confer with trustworthy manufacturers or their agents as to 

 what will meet his requirements.* 



WATER MEASUREMENT 



The Miner's Inch. Although the miner's inch, as commonly 

 measured, is open to objection because of inaccuracy, from an engi- 

 neer's point of view, it is so easily applied that it must remain a popular 

 recourse. It consists in causing the water to flow through an opening, 



*Full details of the cost and flow from pumps drawing from various depths and operated 

 by various motors are given in the publications of the irrigation investigations to which refer- 

 ence has previously been made. Also, Circular 117, California Experiment Station: "The 

 Selection and Cost of a Small Pumping Plant," by B. A. Etcheverry. 



