

1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



257 



part treeless. Enough water is retained 

 in the mountains to furnish only a small 

 summer supply for irrigation, and this 

 is drawn upon only when the rainfall 

 has been deficient, or less than 1 5 inches. 

 There is an artesian belt which sup- 

 plies some water. The winter supply, 

 however, is unlimited. Even in the 

 years of lightest rainfall these rivers are 

 roaring, and every little canyon, dry 

 and parched in summer, runs bank-full 

 after a rain. It is the general opinion 

 of those who have farmed the lands that 

 large crops are always possible with 15 

 inches of winter rain, and the annual 

 run-off is sufficient to supply every foot 

 of ground in the county with more than 

 15 inches ; so all that would be neces- 

 sary to produce maximum crops each 

 year would be canals to divert the flood- 

 water upon the valley lands. This 

 a great advancement for 

 of Ventura county, and 

 their valley in the fore- 

 front of California's agricultural dis- 

 tricts, with an absolute surety of salable 

 crops at large profits in ever- ready mar- 

 kets. On the most conservative esti- 

 mate the actual profit from each acre of 

 land should be almost $60 annually, and 

 this would warrant the expenditure of 

 even more money than is necessary for 

 the development of an extensive system 

 of winter irrigation. Moreover, this 

 system could be developed here without 

 the slightest fear from alkali, and even 

 in those seacoast areas which contain 

 alkali in such quantities as to be now 

 unavailable for cultivation the drainage 

 problem is so simple that their reclama- 

 tion would be a paying enterprise. 



would mean 

 the ranchers 

 would place 



With irrigation, too, other beneficial 

 results would surely follow. The first 

 of these would come from the fertility- 

 laden flood- waters, always carrying in 

 suspension a great amount of sediment, 

 largely organic matter rich in plant 

 food. Experiments show that this sed- 

 iment not only supplies sufficient soil 

 elements to offset those taken off by the 

 plants, but that its plant food may be 

 actually in excess of that carried off, so 

 that the lands are made richer each year. 

 Attention has already been called to the 

 wind-breaks necessary to prevent the 

 drifting of sand in the delta portion of 

 the valley. The second great advan- 

 tage of more extensive irrigation would 

 be in connection with these. The addi- 

 tion of the finer silt particles would 

 serve to bind the sands, make them more 

 retentive of moisture, and the area of 

 cultivated land would be so increased 

 that the w 7 ind-breaks, with their wasted 

 areas of 50 or 60 feet on each side, could 

 be removed. Coupled with this, it 

 might be feasible to clothe the sides of 

 the mountain with trees, and thus help 

 to prevent the rapid run- off of the win- 

 ter rains ; also with the introduction of 

 the sugar beet, which takes a great deal 

 from the soil, the use of the flood-waters, 

 serving to offset this entirely or in a 

 large measure, will make more remote 

 the day when artificial fertilizers may 

 have to be resorted to ; and with flood- 

 waters, rather than artesian, applied 

 where the alkali problem exists, there 

 would be an easier solution of that prob- 

 lem, as the flood-waters are not impreg- 

 nated with harmful salts by leaching 

 through the soil. 



