454 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



Continuity of service and large volume, with con- 

 stant demand for the water, are the requisites for suc- 

 cessful and economical pump irrigation. These condi- 

 tions have been met by the use of eledlrical power, by 

 grouping several pump stations together within a 

 quarter of a mile of each other, and by utilizing the 

 water pumped on the company's storage crops when no 

 other demand exists for its use elsewhere. Experience 

 has demonstrated in a prac5lical way that pumping to 

 reasonable hights can be made a commercial success. 

 By this installation the company is enabled to sell 

 water to farmers at the rate of seventy-five cents an 

 acre foot, and the adlual cost an acre per annum is 

 under rather than over $1.50. While this figure does 

 not mean large profits, it may be said safely that it 

 covers power, attendance, interest, and depreciation, 

 and does not involve any loss to the operating com- 

 pany. Individual installations will not attain results 

 so favorable as these because the necessary experience 

 and organization are not available on a small scale, 

 but where elecftric power can be had as cheaply as in 

 this case, and neighbors combine to construcft pumping 

 plants for joint use in rotation, the cost an acre should 

 not exceed $2.50 per annum. 



