20 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



So famous is the cream of Scott Valley that a firm 

 of ice cream makers in Portland, Ore., haul in wagons a 

 distance of 25 miles every other day 40 to 50 twelve-gallon 

 cans of cream, and ship it by express from Yreka, the 

 county seat, to Portland, a distance of 350 miles. The 

 cream is first put through a process to prevent it turning 

 sour. While no attempt has been made at growing fruit 

 for the market, the horticultural possibilities of the county 

 are great apples, pears, peaches, cherries, English walnuts 

 and small fruits grow to their, greatest perfection. 



Orchards of bearing fruit trees across the border in 

 southern Oregon and in many other parts of the coast are 

 netting the owners $500 to $1,000 dollars an acre. There 

 is no place in the wide, wide world, unless on the South 

 Sea Islands, where the cocoanuts drop at the feet of the 

 natives, where the people live with less exertion than do they 

 in the part of California of which I write. 



The climate here is delightful, the mercury dropping 

 to zero only in occasional winters, excepting in the high 

 altitudes. 



Frequently during the whole of a winter's month the 

 freezing point is not reached. In the summer there is a 

 hot spell in July or August, but the nights are always cool. 



So delightful are the Siskiyou summers that the resi- 

 dents of the lowlands south of us spend the heated term 

 in our mountains along the line of the railroad, breathing 

 our life-giving air and drinking the effervescing water of 

 our mineral springs, some of which rival those of the old 

 world. Here city-worn humanity may rest and recuperate 

 amid the grandest of mountain scenery. 



Our streams teem with trout and salmon in their sea- 

 son. 



Home of S. H. Soule, Little Shasta Valley, Siskiyou County, Cal. 



Shasta river is the home of the largest rainbow trout 

 in the world, and the McCloud river is equally famous for 

 its "Dolly Vardens." 



Many of the religious denominations are represented, 

 and our one hundred schools are among the best in the 

 state. Both of our high schools are accredited in all studies 

 to the State University. Our tax rate is the lowest, only 

 $1.45 on the one hundred dollars. The amount of taxable 

 property amounts to $17,000,000, being an increase of $5,- 

 000,000 in two years. 



Our population is twenty to twenty-five thousand and 

 should be one hundred thousand or more. 



Homes may be secured from the owners of the big 

 ranches who are subdividing and selling in small tracts. 

 Bargains may often be secured from the anti-rustlers, who 

 want to go at something easier than farming. There are 

 still opportunities of homesteading public lands, living on 

 them continuously for 14 months, then paying the gov- 

 ernment $2.50 an acre. 



Men with a few hundred dollars with which to get a 

 start, if willing to work, can always find employment at 

 the mines, mills and ranches, while their families remain 

 on their newly acquired ranches and raise most everything 

 needed to sustain them. 



Supreme Court Decisions] 



Irrigation Cases 



CHANGE OF USE BY APPROPRIATOR. 



An appropriator of water from a stream for irrigation 

 of land on one side of it cannot, as against subsequent ap- 

 propriatprs, use his appropriation for irrigating land on the 

 other side of the stream. Williams v. Altnow. Supreme 

 Court of Oregon. 97 Pacific 539. 

 RIGHTS OF SUBSEQUENT APPROPRIATORS. 



Every riparian proprietor on a non-navigable stream is 

 entitled to a reasonable use of the water of the stream flow- 

 ing through his land, and after the natural wants of all the 

 other riparian proprietors have been supplied he may use 

 their corresponding rights. Williams v. Altnow. Supreme 

 Court of Oregon. 95 Pacific 200. 

 RESTRAINING ENFORCEMENT OF RATES BY SUPERVISORS. 



A court of equity has jurisdiction of a suit by an irriga- 

 tion company to enjoin the boards of supervisors of the 

 respective counties through which its canal extends from 

 enforcing rates fixed by them under the California statute, 

 which it is alleged do not enable the company to earn in the 

 aggregate the income to which it is entitled under the statute, 

 and to determine in a single suit the legality of such rates, on 

 the ground of avoiding a multiplicity of suits. San Joaquin 

 & Kings River Canal & Irrigation Co. y. Stanislaus County. 

 Circuit Court, Northern District of California. 163 Federal 

 567. 

 PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHTS. 



Owners of land acquired by prescription title to an irri- 

 gation ditch through the land of a third person, with a right 

 to conduct through it a designated quantity of water. The 

 third person subsequently executed leases of the right to carry 

 water through the ditch, which leases were signed by persons 

 purporting to represent the owners of the land irrigated from, 

 the ditch, but who were not connected with the owners. The 

 leases were for a nominal rent. Other leases were executed 

 to and signed by persons purporting to act as water commis- 

 sioners for a district for a mere nominal rent, and other leases 

 were executed to a corporation organized for the irrigation of 

 lands. The owners were in possession of the property at the 

 time of the execution of all the leases. Held, that their 

 prescriptive rights were not extinguished under Civ. Code, 

 Sec. 811, providing that a servitude is extinguished by disuse 

 for the period prescribed for acquiring title by enjoyment, etc. 

 Strong v. Baldwin. Supreme Court of California. 97 Pa- 

 cific 178. 

 REGULATION OF IRRIGATION RATES BY COUNTIES. 



Under Act Cal. March 12, 1885 (St. 1885, p. 95, c. 115), 

 which provides that the boards of supervisors of the several 

 counties of the state shall estimate as near as may be the 

 value of the canals, ditches, flumes, water ways, and all other 

 property actually used and useful in the appropriation and 

 furnishing of water for sale in the county by any irrigation 

 company, etc., and in like manner to estimate the annual rea- 

 sonable expenses of such company, including the cost of re- 

 pairs, and to establish maximum rates of charge for water 

 by such company such that its net annual receipts and profits 

 shall not be less than 6 nor more than 18 per cent upon the 

 said value of the property, when in making such estimate a 

 deduction is made for deterioration of the plant from year to 

 year, an allowance should be made for such deduction and 

 added to the annual income in fixing the rates of charge to 

 cover the cost to the company of renewal or reconstruction. 

 San Joaquin & Kings River Canal & Irrigation Co. v. Stan- 

 islaus County. Circuit Court, Northern District of California. 

 163 Federal 567. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age, one year, and 

 the Primer of Irrigation, a 260-page finely illustrated 

 work for new beginners in irrigation. 



