IRRIGATING BY SIPHON 45 



Conveying Water by Siphon. Conveying water over higher 

 ground to a point of delivery on the other side lower than the sup- 

 ply point is a simple operation, and one which might be more gen- 

 erally employed than it is. A simple instance is this: selecting a 

 low, moist spot over the hill, 'a pit was dug, twelve by twenty-four 

 feet to a depth of twelve feet. When completed, five and a half 

 feet of water gathered in the pond. An inch pipe was laid along 

 the level about four hundred feet and over a gently sloping ridge 

 twelve and one-half feet above the plain and then down the slope 

 westward about eight hundred feet. At the summit a pump was 

 used temporarily to draw the water upward in the pipe and soon a 

 flow began from the outlet. The pump was removed and the siphon 

 worked to perfection. 



Siphons are very satisfactory where applicable and are some- 

 times made of pipes of considerable diameter where the supply is 

 large. Such devices are vastly cheaper than tunneling. It is even 

 on record that a fruit grower put in quite an expensive pumping 

 plant to force water over a hill to his orchard on the other side and 

 was surprised to find that the water ran when the pump was not in 

 motion. He had not figured that the delivery point was lower than 

 the supply point, but so it was. In the case of conveying water 

 from rivers to leveed lands below the stream, the siphon is cheaper 

 than a flood-gate and safer and has the advantage of being portable. 



FARM AND GARDEN RESERVOIRS. 



For the construction of a dam to restrain the water of a creek 

 it is always wisest for the man who has had no experience in such 

 work to secure the advice of an expert. Fortunately such men are 

 very abundant in California as dam building has been a profession 

 of Californians ever since early mining days. The making of water- 

 tight dams on a small scale is not necessarily a very expensive opera- 

 tion, but it is liable to become so if not done properly. An experi- 

 enced man can give suggestions as to the location of the work in 

 view of the natural conditions and the use to be made of the water, 

 the character of natural banks or bottom which it is designed to use 

 and the best materials at hand for building, as well as the proper 

 form of the construction for safety and efficiency in connection 

 with economical completion of the job. Expert advice is especially 

 necessary where dams are to be built for closing natural waterways, 

 for such efforts involve the handling of volumes of storm water 

 which a farmer may have little conception of, though he may have 

 grown up on the site. 



The excavation of a small reservoir to collect water from 

 sources wholly apart from a natural water course is a simpler propo- 

 sition and can be easily done with farm experience and appliances, 

 and on this work some suggestions may be offered. 



