SOURCES OF WATER. 51 



creek bed with a dam to hold for summer use in the 

 garden some part of the volumes of water which rush 

 down from the watershed during the winter rains. 



Subterranean Water Sources. There are few places 

 where water for a home garden cannot be had by well- 

 digging and there are many large districts where flowing 

 wells are secured by shallow boring. At the bases of hills 

 horizontal wells or tunnels are frequently satisfactory. 

 The capacity of these wells and tunnels is sometimes very 

 great. They often warrant long-ditch lines or figure in 

 the supply of towns and cities. Unquestionably the pres- 

 ent development of water by these means is only a frac- 

 tion of what is possible, and the owner of untried land 

 should undertake a reasonable amount of prospecting. It 

 is, of course, easy to waste money in this way, but if one 

 proceeds after as full study as he can make of the surface, 

 the outcroppings of rock, the experience of others in the 

 same region, he is pretty sure to realize upon reasonable 

 anticipations. 



Excavation in dry creek beds of gravel and boulders 

 have often brought to light considerable underflow which 

 has been arrested and the water stored by cement dams 

 resting on the bedrock. 



Flowing wells and wells which bring the water near to 

 the surface constitute the main source of subterranean 

 water employed in California. They have reclaimed large 

 districts which were formerly arid wastes and they are 

 largely used also for summer crops in the regions of ample 

 winter rains. Well borers equipped with good appliances 

 are to be found in all parts of the State. 



WATER-LIFTING DEVICES. 



At this point it will be well to remark that any gardener 

 is fortunate who has water brought to the highest point 

 of his plantation by its own weight without a struggle on 

 his part against the force of gravity, and yet there are, 

 of course, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of instances of 



