A TYPE OF IRRIGATION INVESTMENT. 



243 



A CEMENT DITCH, BEAR VALLEY SYSTEM. 



of large affairs from Chicago, who are in the habit of 

 penetrating financial propositions to the core; Cali- 

 fornians thoroughly familiar with all the local condi- 

 tions related to the value of land and water; lawyers 

 specially skilled in the legal questions involved in 

 the complicated affairs of the companyand the plans 

 proposed for its reorganization. Still other parties 

 to the conference brought to its councils broad knowl- 

 edge of irrigation in its world-wide aspects and were 



able to compare this typical 

 enterprise with all others of 

 prominence in various west- 

 ern States and Territories. 

 This was the character of 

 the jury which passed upon 

 the merits of Bear Valley, 

 and weighed in its scales the 

 various elements which en- 

 ter into the problem of irri- 

 gation investment. The ex- 

 amination was thorough, 

 rigid and merciless. The 

 result, as will be seen, was 

 the triumphant vindication 

 of irrigation securities as a 

 class. 



A MANY-SIDED SUBJECT. 



The Bear Valley irrigation 

 system is a many-sided sub- 

 ject. A chapter might be 

 written on its bold and suc- 

 cessful engineering, which 

 has passed into the literature 

 of the profession; another 

 on the character of the irri- 

 gation methods it has intro- 

 duced, which are unquestion- 

 ably the most perfect yet 

 adopted in the world; an- 

 other on the character of the 

 communities which have 

 been built up under these 

 beautiful canals; and still 

 another, and this of absorb- 

 ing interest, on the history 

 of the development of the 

 enterprise in its various 

 phases. But at this time the 

 public is interested chiefly 

 in the financial outcome of 

 the project, and in the effect 

 which it will have upon the 

 future of the industry. The 

 examination of the system 

 began with an inspection 

 of the reservoir and dam 



in the top of the San Bernardino mountains and 

 ended with the closest study of land and water val- 

 ues in the beautiful valleys to which this water is 

 conducted through river bed, pipes, flumes, tun- 

 nels and canals. It included a careful consid- 

 eration of every item in the list of liabilities 

 and estimates of construction, as well as the cost 

 of administration when the entire system shall be 

 complete. 



