THE IRRIGATION A 



VOL. xv . 



CHICAGO, AUGUST, 1901. 



NO. 11 



The Man The author of the leading ar- 

 From India. ticle - n thig number) Mr . E 



H. Pargiter, has been in the employ of 

 the English government for the last 26 

 years in northern India in the construc- 

 tion and management of irrigation canals. 

 At present lie is traveling through the 

 United States, and if he is suited with 

 the outlook and prospects, may locate 

 here permanently. The article is too long 

 for one issue, consequently it will be con- 

 tinued in following numbers until com- 

 pleted. 



Artesian 



Water 



Discovery. 



In the West oil and water, it 

 seems, go hand in hand, not- 

 withstanding their natural an- 

 tipathy to one another. The search for 

 petroleum on the Mohave desert in Cali- 

 fornia has resulted in the development of 

 a supply of artesian water which is des- 

 tined in time to prove of more value than 

 oil. The discovery, says the Sun Fran- 

 cisco Chronicle, has been made near Vic- 

 tor, a mining town located in the heart of 

 the desert on the Colton-Barstow branch 

 of the Santa Fe system, midway between 

 those two places. Prospecting for oil has 

 been in progress there for weeks, as it is 

 on the line of the supposed extension of 

 the Kern river belt. Three wells have 

 struck a strong artesian flow of water within 

 the past week. All of them are repre- 

 sented to be gnshers. The last of the 

 three penetrated the water belt at a depth 

 of 185 feet, and it is yielding a steady 

 stream of 215 miner's inches. It emerges 



from the earth with such force that up to 

 the present time the owners have failed to 

 cap the pipe, and the flow is consequently 

 unrestrained. 



This fortunate discovery has given a 

 new and unexpected value to the land and 

 revolutionized the prospects of that deso- 

 late region. If the water belt is found to 

 underlie the whole desert it will doubtless 

 become one of the mjst productive agri- 

 cultural districts in the State. All that 

 the soil in that section needs to make it 

 produce crops of any kind is moisture. 

 Wherever the soil could be irrigated it 

 has yielded generously. But the avail- 

 able water supply has been so scant that 

 it has been impossible to cultivate more 

 than a few small areas scattered widely 

 apart along the edge of the great barren 

 waste. 



Homes for Mr. A. H. Naftzger, the Presi- 

 Toilers. dent of the Southern Califor- 



nia Fruit Exchange, recently testified 

 before the Industrial Commission at Wash- 

 ington. Mr. Naftzger, whose business is 

 dependent almost solely upon irrigation, 

 made some interesting statements regard- 

 ing the subject. Among other things, he 

 said: 



''It has been carefully estimated that 

 under a system of national irrigation sev- 

 enty-five million to one hundred million 

 of acres of lands now practically desert 

 and worthless could be reclaimed and 

 made productive. It would be nearly or 

 quite impossible to do this without Gov- 



