PUMPING WATER FOR IRRI- 

 GATING PURPOSES. 



[Read before the Farmers' Clubs' Institute, Los Angeles, Cal.] 



Pumping water for irrigation is not new. India has long irrigated 

 almost as many acres from pumped wells as from the great canals 

 built by the English government. 



It is but a step from flowing wells, with which we have long been 

 familiar, to wells which must be assisted by the pump. 



Southern California did little with pumps prior to 1898. Some 

 large work was projected earlier. In August. 1897, a movement look- 

 .ing toward pumping for 25, COO acres or more in the vicinity of San 

 Jacinto, Lake View, Ferris and Elsinore was begun. While less than 

 fifty horse-power was then being used on wells in all that region, 

 there is now not less than 350, and the proposed company transmit- 

 ting its power from Mill Creek, a distance of thirty miles, will find 

 immediate sale for over 600 horse-power and will confine its work to a 

 radius of about ten miles around Ferris, leaving out San Jacinto and 

 Elsinore. Much more power than they will be able to develop will be 

 called for in the San Jacinto valley. The Chase Nursery Company, 

 purchasing over 1,000 acres near Ferris, has already contracted for a 

 steam electric plant of some 300 horse-power, to be used for various 

 purposes, but primarily to distribute power to a dozen or more wells 

 scattered over the tract supplying water for alfalfa. 



Such large plants will be very common. The Kern County Land 

 Company of Bakersfield was the pioneer in actual use of electric 

 pumps upon a large scale, though not the first electric company to 

 make some use of such power for pumping water. I believe the pio- 

 neer electric pumping plant for irrigation was at Pomona, in connec- 

 tion with the San Antonio Light and Power Company the company 

 which led the world by two years in the commercial use of high 

 voltage and long distance transmission. Ten thousand volts and a 

 thirty mile pole line was a great leap from earlier practice. The 

 pumping industry now opens. up so largely that it appears plain that 

 all available water power in Southern California, including the Kern 

 River, brought in from 125 miles distance, can be permanently utilized 

 in this single industry. The water powers are not numerous or large 

 in dry seasons. It is equally plain that all our oil will be used in our 

 industries. Every acre of land capable of intense culture will be 

 needed to supply the open and opening markets; and, for vast areas, 

 pumped water will be the only water available. 



