42 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



fraction of the irrigation formerly found necessary be- 

 cause the water has filled the lower soil to within a 

 few feet of the surface and furnishes sub-irrigation. 

 The little plants, however, must be watched over and 

 nursed by irrigating and cultivating them frequently 

 during the first and second years. Some lands in the 



PUMPING PLANT OF R. W. BRISCOE, 

 Near Malaga. Cal. 



Fresno fruit district are not easily reached with ditch 

 water by gravity and recourse is had to methods of 

 pumping so that newly planted trees and vines may be 

 watered as frequently as necessary. Wells are now 

 drilled or bored and a bountiful supply of excellent 

 water for irrigating purposes is found at depths where 

 once there was none. 



The writer witnessed the operation of a little pump- 

 ing plant which supplies the water for the new vine- 

 yard of Mr. E. W. Briscoe near Malaga, Cal. The 



PUMPING WHEEL, SUNNY SIDE FRUIT RANCH, 

 Near Fresno, Gal. 



well is bored fifty-six feet deep and cased with twelve- 

 inch casing. A six-inch centrifugal pump is set in a 

 pit directly over the well and ten feet below the surface 

 of the ground. A gasoline or oil engine located as 

 shown in the cut connected by belt to the pump in 

 the pit furnishes the power, and may be started at 



any time that it is desired to use water on the field. 

 The water rises in the well so that when the pump is 

 running at full speed it lifts water thirty feet and 

 throws from one thousand to twelve hundred gallons 

 of water per minute at a cost for fuel oil of six cents 

 per hour. The well is located near the highest point 

 on the two hundred and forty arcres which it is intended 

 to irrigate. Water can be easily lead over the land 

 from this point, thus avoiding the expense of con- 

 structing independent laterals from the supply ditch 

 to the vineyard. The engine runs with slight attention 

 from the irrigator, making the plant thus equipped both 

 efficient and economical, considering the work performed. 

 Generators for use on gas engines are now furnished 

 with them, by means of which crude oil as it comes 

 from the wells may be used, making the cost of running 

 an engine much less than when gasoline or the distil- 

 late is used. The abundance and consequent low price 

 of California crude oil has greatly simplified the fuel 

 question, making it the most convenient as well as the 

 cheapest fuel known. Mr. Briscoe regards this method 

 of obtaining water for irrigating purposes as highly 

 satisfactory. As to the permanent supply of water 

 from so small a well there may be some question 

 should pumping be commonly practiced in a limited 

 territory. 



Knolls or small tracts which are too high for irri- 

 gating from the ditches are found on some fruit ranches. 

 They are irrigated in some instances by water raised 

 from the supply ditches by a large water wheel, to 

 which is attached buckets which empty themselves into 

 a side trough or small flume which conveys the water 

 to the more elevated ground. The wheel is adjust- 

 able to the height of water in the ditch, and of course 

 raises water without expense after it is once installed. 

 This plan is old and is efficient where only small quan- 

 tities of water are required, and 

 a supply ditch with the necessary 

 check or drop is accessible. 



The rise of water through the 

 sub-soil, which has been inci- 

 dentally alluded to as providing 

 sub-irrigation, is a phase of the 

 water question which has been 

 gradually forcing itself upon the 

 attention of the fruit growers of 

 Fresno county. While the grad- 

 ual rise of water looks like a 

 great help to the cultivator, and 

 is, under certain limitations, yet 

 where the rise is unchecked, it 

 has resulted in the depletion of 

 once valuable fruit farms. After 

 sub- water rises to such a height 

 as to be available for sub-irriga- 

 tion, it does not remain at that 

 desirable level, but continues to 

 rise to such an extent that the 

 available depth of soil is lessened, 

 and the water containing alkali 

 in solution being evaporated 

 from the surface, leaves the solid 



alkali at or near the surface. This process, going on for 

 some time, surcharges the surface soil to an injurious ex- 

 tent, even going so far as to destroy every valuable plant, 

 and that, too, in the face of the most persistent efforts 

 of experienced fruit culturists to prevent it. The annual 

 rise and fall of three or four feet in the position of 



