CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Irrigation from Flowing Wells. A considerable area of orchard 

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

 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 alongside streams 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 



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End view of irrigating wheel. 



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, 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. Since, however, electric and distillate 

 motors have become common, ruder devices have been largely 

 displaced, though, under certain conditions, still serviceable. 



