WATER MEASUREMENT Ig7 



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 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 con- 

 stant 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 of 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 require- 

 ments.* 



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, the capacity of which is known, and which is readily 

 capable of adjustment to the flow in any case. A simple form of this 

 device and its use is shown in the illustration, which represents a 

 board 1 inch thick, 12 inches wide, and about 8 feet long. The open- 

 ing is 1 inch wide and 50 inches long, and the distance from the top 

 of the board to the center of the opening is exactly 4 inches on the 

 up-stream side. On the down-stream side the opening is beveled so 

 that the hole presents sharp edges to the stream. A sliding board is 

 hung upon the top of the first board, with a strip screwed along its 

 upper edge, this sliding board being wide enough to cover the open- 

 ing on the up-stream side. In the slot there is a closely-fitting block, 

 made to slide on the beveled edges and fastened by a screw to the 

 sliding board. It is obvious, then, that when the sliding board is 

 moved backward or forward, by means of its end, which is extended 

 for a handle, the block moves in the slot and determines the length 

 of the opening. 



In operation the board is placed in the stream as shown in the 

 figure, so as to dam the flow completely, and the sliding board is 



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

 by various motors are Riven in the publications of the Irrigation Investigations to which 

 reference has previously been made. Also, Circular 117, California Experiment Station; 

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



