KI<KCTRICITY IN IRRIGATION. 45 1 



comparatively nothing. This installation is delivering 

 50,000 gallons a minute fifty feet high, adequate for 

 irrigating 10,000 acres of orchard. 



Storage reservoirs can be construcfted in the moun- 

 tains in such manner as to utilize the power of a river 

 or its fall to the full extent, and from this plant or 

 plants the power generated can be transmitted down 

 the valley to the twenty or forty acre irrigated farms, 

 where it can be applied to an elecfbric motor operating 

 a pump lifting water upon the land as required. This 

 should be the ideal irrigation system. The farmer 

 could start his motor and the water will come. When 

 he has enough he shuts it off. His water-supply is 

 right under him in great abundance. The pracftica- 

 bility of this development has already been demon- 

 strated by a number of plants already in operation in 

 the San Joaquin valley of California, where it is 

 claimed that water is adlually being pumped at less 

 cost than from gravity ditches, but the author does 

 not stand voucher for the completeness of this state- 

 ment. There are no doubt many opportunities where 

 ele(ftric power plants can be economically installed in 

 the caiions and the water from these used to irrigate the 

 fields miles away. The power from these plants can 

 be condu6led to points beyond reach of the canals and 

 employed in lifting underground waters to the surface. 



Induction Motors for Combination Pumping. 

 — One of the largest and most successful elecftric 

 pumping plants in the world is operated by a land 

 company in Kern County, California. This concern 

 instituted a very careful investigation to determine the 

 cheapest and most effedlive means for raising water 



