54 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



inverts them, and the water is caught in a box properly 

 placed and is then conducted by a flume to the point of 

 discharge. Current wheels are largely used for short lifts 

 from streams or irrigation ditches in which the water 

 flows with sufficient velocity to revolve them. The wheels 

 are usually home-made, and much ingenuity can be em- 

 ployed in constructing them of available materials. 



Hydraulic Rams. The hydraulic ram is wasteful in that 

 it can deliver at a higher level but a fraction of the water 

 furnished it and it requires a definite fall for its action. 

 Where conditions are favorable it does become an effective 

 agency because it acts incessantly and, with suitable stor- 

 age, considerable amounts of water become available for 

 irrigation. Manufacturers of hydraulic rams furnish full 

 accounts of their requirements and achievements. 



A suggestive combination of current wheel and hy- 

 draulic ram, in operation in this State, is described as 

 follows : 



"A. P. Osborn's residence and the best part of his land 

 are located on high grounds on the bank of the Tule river, 

 at Rural. To get water on this land without going several 

 miles up the river and bringing out a ditch, Mr. Osborn 

 has placed in the river a wheel twenty-five feet in diameter 

 and five feet wide. Surrounding this wheel on either side 

 are forty boxes, each holding four gallons of water, mak- 

 ing in all eighty boxes, with an entire lifting capacity of 

 three hundred and twenty gallons at each revolution of 

 the wheel, which is turned by the current of the river. 

 As the boxes reach an elevation of twenty-two feet, the 

 water in them is emptied into a flume, which conducts it 

 onward into an irrigation ditch. This elevating the water 

 twenty-two feet is only sufficient to place it on the flat 

 whereon is done the farming, and will not take it to the 

 knoll on which stands the residence. This is accomplished 

 by a hydraulic ram. A part of the water reaching the top 

 of the river bank is allowed to run bac'i down the steep 



