1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 171 



The weather there is very even, so that they know just 

 what to depend upon. So even is it that they dry all of 

 their raisin crop in the field without any fear of rain. 



There are other plans of irrigation carried on in that sec- 

 tion which are not so extensive. Most of the vegetable 

 gardeners use wind-mills, some of them having as many as 

 five or six on their place. 



Others use steam pumps. Their land is all arranged for 

 irrigation. They pump the water into a large tank and con- 

 duct it through their fields in wooden troughs made for the 

 purpose. 



They are about ten inches square, and are so constructed 

 that the water may be let out at any given point. They 

 allow it to run over the land, and use as much as may be 

 required. 



We do not irrigate in the same manner, nor can we. They 

 know there will be no rain for a given time. We do not 

 know from one day to another, and are in constant fear lest 

 the shower that comes to-day may be the last for a month. 

 We have to put the water on lightly, for fear there may be 

 a deluge the next day. One inch of water at any time is all 

 that it is safe to apply. If there is no rain for a week then 

 another inch, and so on through the season, as the necessity 

 may demand. I think one inch of water over the surface 

 once a week will keep any crop growing in the dryest 

 weather. 



A good steam pump will supply that amount through a 

 three-inch pipe in six hours — twenty-five thousand gallons. 

 I mean by a " good pump," one that will pump one hundred 

 gallons per minute. I do not recommend a smaller pump, 

 because it will cost just as much to run one half the size ; 

 the only diSerence being that a little smaller quantity of coal 

 will be used The cost of a large mill is not much more 

 than a small one, and it will do many times the work of a 

 small one with the same labor. I would as soon think of 

 being without a steam pump as the farmer who cuts hay 

 would of being without a mowing-machine. 



It takes one man to run the pump and one to attend the 

 hose. But very little hose is required if the land is well 

 piped. I would recommend piping the land with two and 



