THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



IKKIGATED APPLE OKCHARD IN KANSAS. 



THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



CHAPTER XIII. THE GREAT FLOODING SYSTEM OF THE 

 SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



THE immense scale on which water is 

 1 handled in the great central valley 

 California is worthy of a special study 

 because there is no other place in the 

 United States, and probably not in the 

 world, where water is so intelligently used 

 m such vast quantities on so large an 

 area. At the same time the methods can- 

 not be recommended in all respects for the 

 small farmer, though for extensive work 

 with plenty of water at command they are 

 hard to improve upon. 



Kern Kiver, draining the lofty country 

 south of Mount Whitney, rolls out upon 

 the great plains of Kern County over two 



thousand cubic feet average flow for the 

 dry season, or over one hundred thousand 

 miner's inches. This is generally much 

 increased when the snow is melting, 

 making the summer supply very large and 

 reliable. This with the winter flood-water 

 once made about a quarter of a million 

 acres of shallow lake and swamp covered 

 with reeds and tule and willow bordered 

 sloughs, exhaling all summer long a 

 malaria almost as deadly as that of 

 Panama. Bordering this on the east side 

 the valley were half a million acres of 

 fine granite soil drifted in the course of 

 ages from the hills and lying on a slope 



