54 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



companies with plenty of capital, the objedl being to 

 make salable the adjacent tracfts of foothill lands, which 

 for several reasons are best adapted to fruit culture. 

 These tunnels are opened by means of diamond drills 

 operated with the power of compressed air supplied by 

 an air-pump, at the opening of the drift. As a rule 

 the tunnels are less than looo feet in length, and are 

 run in such way as to tap the various shelving strati- 

 fications of formation, which carry more or less quanti- 

 ties of pure water seeking its level from the higher 

 mountains. The plan is pra(5licable in supplying a 

 satisfa(5lory head of water to fill an ordinary ditch, but 

 before such a heavy undertaking is commenced the ser- 

 vices of a geologist or hydraulic engineer should be 

 called to determine the nature of the mountain's inte- 

 rior, especially as to the amount of water it may con- 

 tain. There is no use of going to the expense of run- 

 ning an adit until the hidden water supply is fairly well 

 approximated. All mountains do not contain water, 

 and this fadl is very essential in undertaking such an 

 enterprise as described. 



The Newsom System. — A simple gravity system 

 for tapping the underflow of hillsides or dry streams 

 with considerable pitch has been invented and patented 

 by Prof. Eli Newsom, and a sample plant is in success- 

 ful operation near Parker, Colorado, twenty miles south 

 of Denver. This system gives a constant flow of water, 

 much as described under the foregoing caption on tun- 

 neling, but the plan is necessarily much cheaper, and 

 with a sufficient supply of water it ought to be able to 

 irrigate from twenty to forty acres quite readily. Pro- 

 fessor Newsom 's device consists of an artificial reser- 



