Cost of Pumping Plants 



riRS. A. J. KANAOA, Editor Farm and Irrigation Age. 



It is with pleasure that I submit the following on irrigation pumps, methods, cost of 

 operating, etc., for the Irrigation Number of FOR CALIFORNIA. 



The following figures may be of interest: 



Cost of operating per day of ten hours, 80 cents to $1.00. 



Cost of installing plant, $12.50 per acre. 



Cost of putting water 12 inches deep on 80 acres, 60 or 75 cents per acre. 



A letter from Mrs. H. L. Davis of Salinas, Monterey County, will be interesting to 

 your readers. She says in part: 



"I am now irrigating 483 acres of land. I have 300 acres in sugar beets and 100 

 acres in potatoes and 80 in beans. My object in writing is to tell my experience in 

 irrigating with a pumping plant. I have two artesian wells 150 feet deep and with one 

 22-horsepower engine I irrigate this whole piece of land and also 150 acres of a neigh- 

 bor's. I contemplate buying another engine in the spring and will then irrigate more 

 land." 



Another letter, from Mr. Al Griffin, says: 



"I am using a 12-horsepower distillate engine, with 6-inch pump, to irrigate 

 80 acres of raisins. The original cost of my plant was $1000. It has a flow of from 

 900 to 1000 gallons per minute, with a total lift of 30 feet. I could irrigate 150 acres 

 with this plant." 



MEASUREMENTS 



One miner's inch of water equals 9 gallons of water per minute California meas- 

 urement, or .02 cubic foot per second. This amount will cover ten acres, 1.45 feet, or 

 practically V/ 2 feet deep in one year running of water. 



Four hundred gallons per minute equals 44 miner's inches and will cover 88 acres 

 12 inches deep in 100 days running twelve hours per day; for 10-foot lift, 2 horsepower, 

 20-foot lift, 4 horsepower. 



Sixteen thousand gallons per minute equals 177 miner's inches. This will cover 353 

 acres of land 12 inches deep, running 12 hours per day. Lift of 10 feet, 8 horsepower; 

 lift of 20 feet, 16 horsepower. 



STEAM PLANT 



One thousand acres of land, capacity of pump 4500 gallons per minute, approx- 

 imated horsepower 40. This pump will cover 1000 acres 12 inches deep in 100 days, 

 running twelve hours per day — being a twenty-foot lift for water. If the water required 

 a ten-foot lift it would take only one-half the horsepower. 



The cost per horsepower for ordinary plants usually ranged from $50 on small plants 

 to as low as $25 on large ones. 



COST OF FUEL 



Fuel oil at 2 cents per gallon to Irrigate 1000 acres, 20-foot lift, $510 for oil, being 

 approximately 50 cents per acre. Cost of installing this plant would be from $2500 to 

 $3000. This will require from two to three gallons of Bakersfield fuel oil per horsepow- 

 er per hour. For ordinary slide valve engine. Fuel can be reduced with a condensing 

 engine and high efficiency equipment. To 1'/ 2 to 2 gallons per horsepower per hour. 

 (Water here was pumped out of a river.) 



* * • * • 



THE BROWN FAMILY IN CALIFORNIA 



Owing to the general Interest In irrigation and Its Importance In this State, the 

 editors of FOR CALIFORNIA decided to omit the usual Installment of the Brown Fam- 

 ily in this Issue. But the genial New Englanders who have cast their lot in California 

 will greet our readers through the March number of FOR CALIFORNIA. 



It It believed that this Irrigation Number will be of great good In affording definite 

 information by authorities on Irrigation. 



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