AMERICAN AND INDIAN IRRIGATION WORKS. 



109 



usual extravagance, of rock-filled crib work, while 

 many canals, especially in California, are taken di- 

 rectly from the streams by a simple inlet, with no 

 dam or other diversion weir. Little time is spent in 

 ascertaining the best location, either for the head- 

 works or the canal line, and wood is universally em- 

 ployed in the construction of flumes or aqueducts, 

 regulating gates and falls. 



The pressure which engineers are now bringing to 

 bear upon the projectors of irrigation works is such 

 that more good, substantial and permanent work is 

 being done than at any time in the past history of ir- 

 rigation development in this country, and the date is 

 not far distant when our irrigation works will be de- 

 signed and constructed with the care they deserve. 

 There is even less excuse for faulty and unsafe work 

 on an irrigation system than on a railway; for should 

 a railway bridge be badly constructed and give way, 

 the lives of only those few persons who are upon the 

 train which falls through it are lost, and if the line is 

 badly located the chief loss to the company is in de- 

 terioration of the rolling stock and added cost of 

 haulage; but if a dam or a similar work on an irriga- 

 tion system gives way, not only are the lives of those 

 whom the floods may engulf endangered, but a large 

 amount of property destroyed, and the lack of water 

 for the irrigation of the crops may impoverish and 

 render destitute hundredsof families who are depend- 

 ent upon the water supply to mature their crops. In 

 addition, the bad location of the canal line and cheap 

 construction of works frequently mean such enormous 

 outlays for repairs and maintenance as to consume all 

 the returns from water rentals and run the company 

 into debt. 



MAINTENANCE AND SUPERVISION. 



The sixth point of difference referred to between 

 Indian and American irrigation works is in the main- 

 tenance and supervision of these works. In India 

 the completion of an irrigation system is no reason 

 for dispensing with the services of the engineers. A 

 chief engineer, with his assistants, who have charge 

 of the various divisions of a canal, is always retained 

 in order to keep the works up and to design and super- 

 intend improvements. In addition to the engineer 

 corps are overseers and patrols, the latter having 

 comparatively short sections of the canal, which they 

 walk daily in order to report the condition of the 

 works, make or suggest needed repairs, and especially 

 to perform police duty by preventing damage being 

 done by heedless or vicious persons, and to keep 

 cattle from tramping over the ditches. The superin- 

 tendence by these engineers and overseers renders it 

 possible to keep the canal up to the highest state of 

 efficiency, and the magisterial and police powers 

 given them enable the canal officials to arrest and 

 punish offenders against canal laws. 



With us, after a canal system is completed, the serv- 

 ices of the engineer are usually dispensed with, and 

 the supervision and maintenance of the work fall to 

 the lot of some superintendent, who may be a farmer, 

 having no knowledge of engineering and as little of 

 the needs of the work under his charge. Gophers are 

 permitted to burrow at discretion in the canal banks, 

 and small leaks go unattended to, as their dangers 

 are unappreciated, while flumes and weirs and other 

 perishable works are permitted to remain unrepaired 

 until they are past repairing and must be renewed. 

 Rarely is any proper system of patrol in operation; 

 sometimes ditch riders are employed, though usually 

 only on the more dangerous sections of the canal. 

 On the vigilance and skill of the patrolmen and super- 

 intendent largely depend the successful operation 

 of a canal system, and this branch of the service is 

 that which is most neglected and least thought of in 

 the administration of American canals. 



HIGHEST WEIR IN THE WORLD. 



The claim is put forth by Stanislaus county, Cal., 

 of having the highest overflow dam in the world. It 

 is located in the canon of the Tuolumne river, three 

 miles from the town of La Grange, and, according to 

 the dimensions given, is 360 feet long on top, the plan 

 being curved on a radius of 320 feet, and the maxi- 

 mum height above the foundation is some 128 feet. 

 The front face of the wall is made to conform to the 

 curve described by the water in overflowing and to 

 deflect it into the basin in front of the dam. The 

 dam is built of " Cyclopean rubble," and is a model of 

 solidity. Huge rocks, weighing from six to ten tons, 

 were first laid on the botton, all their projecting por- 

 tions being cut off, and a flat but rough surface pre- 

 pared for the lower bed, but before being placed in 

 the bottom all the stones, whatever their size, were 

 scrubbed, and subjected to the action of numerous 

 jets of water under a pressure of some seventy-five 

 feet. The dam is intended to distribute water over a 

 territory embracing 276,000 acres, one district, the 

 Turlock, comprising about 198,000, and the Modesta 

 district 73,000. The water flows from the dam into 

 two ditches, one of 30 miles length and 100 feet 

 width, and the other of 28 miles length and 80 feet 

 width. The lake will be four miles long and one-half 

 mile wide. 



Whatcom, Wash., is talking of utilizing a 40-foot fall 

 for the generation of electricity for street cars, light- 

 ing, etc. 



In the Pecos valley, N. M., they are refusing $100 

 an acre for 640 acre tracts of land that three years 

 ago sold for $1.25 an acre. Moral : cogitate, emigrate, 

 irrigate. 



