344 



TEE IRRIGATION AGE. 



which recently appeared in a califorina 

 exchange: 



"We all remember what good old 

 Ike Walton said of the strawberry : 



"Doubtless God might have made a 

 better berry, but doubtless God never did. 



"So I say, that God might have made a 

 richer and more productive country than 

 Ventura, (Califorina) but doubtless God 

 never did. Yet rich and excellent as is 

 Ventura county, she has one signal lack, a 

 scarcity of water. 



"In these late years of slight rainfall, 

 I think it is not exaggeration to state 

 that with ample water for all needed irri- 

 gation, the productiveness of the country 

 might have been nearly doubled. Yet it 

 is believed by some of the wisest that this 

 want hangs wholly upon lack of develop- 

 men^. As in Los Angeles and San Ber- 

 nardino counties, there is a vast reservoir 

 of the purest water under Ventura's rich 

 acres that only; needs tapping to yield an 

 unlimited supply of the very best water. 



"One of Oxnard,s most wide-awake 

 young farmers, Mr. A. F. Maulhardt, has 

 proved this true in the region about 

 Oxnard, California, His several wells, 

 some of which are flowing, from which are 

 being pumped hundreds of inches of 

 excellent water, are proving a bonanza to 

 him and as an object lesson of what pluck 

 and enterprise may do, will come with 

 blessing to all his neighbors. Already 

 his example has proved contagious and 

 more than one of his neighbors have sunk 

 the shaft that has won this greatest desid- 

 eratum of Southern California agriculture. 



"As one rides along the road between 

 his irrigated fields of beans and beets, and 

 those of his neighbors that have not had 

 the benefit of the irrigation, the advantage 

 is so marked that it must be most con- 

 vincing to all interested in the production 

 of maximum harvests. 



"All that the great agricultural region 

 from Piru to Ventura needs to make it the 

 T ery garden of the world is a generous 



supply of water. That nervs and enter 

 prise may secure this by wisely located 

 wells almost goes without saying. Surely 

 it is a matter of greatest moment to this 

 magnificent county." 



WATER REQUIRED IN IRRIGATION. 



Facts of interest in connection with the 

 amount of water used in western irriga- 

 tion are furnished by a description of the 

 Vernal Valley irrigating system of north- 

 eastern Utah, now in preparation for one 

 of the reports of the United States Geol- 

 ogical Survey. The Vernal Valley is a 

 fertile region, approximately 20 miles long 

 by 3 miles wide, its boundaries being 

 sharply defined by the surrounding foot- 

 hills. The soil is a sandy loam and the 

 principal crops are alfalfa and oats. Like 

 many other sections of the west, the mean 

 annual precipitation in the Vernal Valley 

 is small, being only a little over 9 inches, 

 an amount entirely insufficient for agri- 

 cultural purposes; furthermore, the an- 

 nual snowfall is light and there is no well 

 defined rainy season, Hence, without the 

 use of water, the land is practically worth- 

 less for cultivation, its value being placed 

 at $1.25 per acre. With the construction 

 of irrigating ditches, however, and with 

 the assurance of a good water supply, the 

 same land at once increases in value to $30 

 an acre. 



According to the twelfth census, 25,000 

 acres of the Vernal Valley are under ditch, 

 17,471 acres of which were being cultiva- 

 ted in 1900 by means of irrigation, the 

 population numbering 6000. All the 

 water which is diverted for use upon the 

 land is taken from Ashley creek, a tribu- 

 tary of the Gree rirer. From this stream 

 there are three main canals, besides a 

 number of smaller ones, each drawing a 

 specified amount of water which has been 

 allotted by law. 



Measurements have been made at var- 

 ious times, by the hydrographers of 

 the United States Geological Survey, of 



