102 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



relative to the impounding of winter rains 

 for the purpose of doing away with fresh- 

 ets and increasing irrigation. 



"About twenty-five years ago," said he, 

 "Col. Hamilton Hall, State Engineer, ex- 

 pended nearly a quarter of a million 

 dollars in surveying the water sheds and 

 canyons of the San Gabriel and other 

 rivers, with the view of multiplying irri- 

 gation facilities and saving the lowlands 

 from destruction by freshets. His plan 

 was to impound the rains in the canyon. 

 The project was never utilized, and the 

 destruction of the lowlands and the atten- 

 dant ruinons conditions to agricultural in- 

 terests have continued and grown. In the 

 meantime, the country has spent many 

 thousands of dollars in remedial legisla- 

 tion, surveying river channels, building 

 and caring for bridges, and so forth, near- 

 ly all of which has been a useless expense 

 to taxpayers. The value of the land de- 

 stroyed more than equaled the probable 

 amount needed to impound the rains. 



Meanwhile, other States and Territories 

 have adopted Col. Hall's plan, with com- 

 plete success. Quite a number of eminent 

 engineers have commended, and so far as 

 known, none have condemned it. It 

 would seem that government construction, 

 distribution and management is the only 

 course by which to secure individual prop- 

 erty and the rights of the public." 



That the farmers of California are awak- 

 ening to the truth of the above is shown 

 by the fact that at the Farmers' Institute, 

 held ar Monrovia, last May, a resolution 

 was passed declaring that the farmers 

 assembled, realizing that several thousand 

 acres of valuable land bordering the San 

 Gabriel and other rivers have been and 



will continue to be destroyed by freshets, 

 "respectfully request the Legislature, and 

 especially the senators and assemblymen 

 of Los Angeles county, to consider the 

 propriety of adopting such legislation as 

 will secure to the farmers such a state or 

 federal reservoir system as will immense- 

 ly increase the irrigation supply, and at 

 the same time save the lowlands from 

 destruction." 



This is certainly a step in the right 

 direction. 



The following is an extract from an ad- 

 dress delivered at Covina. Cal., by Geo. H. 

 Maxwell: 



"In this necessity for cheap water lies 

 the great merit of the policy of Federal 

 storage reservoirs. Their purpose is to 

 reinforce the natural flow of the streams, 

 by so regulating them that the water will 

 come down when needed, and this without 

 charge of toll of any kind. If the reser- 

 voirs were to be built by private capital, 

 the capital must be repaid, principal and 

 interest, and though the burden goos first 

 upon the California fruit-grower, it would 

 have to be finally paid, if at all, in a higher 

 pi ice paid for the product by the eastern 

 consumer. And it is very doubtful wheth- 

 er the industry would bear the burden. 

 At any rate as conditions now exist, it 

 would be practically impossible to put to- 

 gether a proposition which would warrant 

 the investment of the capital. The possi- 

 bility of a market for the products at a rate 

 high enough to reimburse the capitalist, 

 would after all be the capitalist's only se- 

 curity. It matters not what contract he 

 might get from the land-owner. If the 

 product could not be marketed with profit 

 the land itself would afford no security." 



