346 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



Ausrust 



less important. As a single example : 

 lumber companies have become inter- 

 ested in conservative lumbering as a 

 result of the cooperative work, and 

 several of them have either adopted 

 systems as a part of protecting their 

 lands from fires, or are on the verge 

 of doing so. 



During the next two years the stud- 



ies of forest fires and of important 

 lumber trees are to be continued, while 

 the tests of California coast timbers, 

 already under way at the State Uni- 

 versity, will be continued and extend- 

 ed. Special attention will be given to 

 questions of tree planting, and fur- 

 ther studies of the effect of the forest 

 on water supply will be made. 



WORK OF THE RECLAMATION SER- 

 VICE IN CALIFORNIA 



BY 

 F. H. NEWELL 



Chief Engineer, U. S. Reclamation Service 



'T HE State of California, with its 

 immense area and diversity of 

 physical conditions, has offered tempt- 

 ing opportunities for investigations 

 and survey by the Reclamation Ser- 

 vice. At the same time, the relatively 

 high state of development of the arid 

 portions of California have resulted in 

 a complication of private rights which 

 have made construction by the govern- 

 ment notably difficult. California has 

 been the pioneer in irrigation develop- 

 ment, and being in part humid and 

 part arid, it has been for years the bat- 

 tle-ground between two radically op- 

 posite and contending ideas regarding 

 water ownership. The complications 

 which have resulted are such that the 

 government in its large work has been 

 compelled to proceed with great cau- 

 tion. 



Throughout the state irrigation de- 

 velopment has proceeded rapidly and 

 individuals and corporations have 

 built many large works. California, 

 especially the southern part, has for 

 several years offered examples of 

 elaborate hydraulic construction, and 

 students of irrigation, as well as ex- 

 . perienced engineers, have come from 

 abroad and from all parts of the arid 

 west to study the examples there to 

 be found. On the passage of the Re- 

 clamation Act of June 17, 1902, con- 



ferring authority upon the Secretary 

 of the Interior to construct large 

 works in California and elsewhere, it 

 was apparent that any such construc- 

 tion must be very carefully considered 

 with reference to all vested interests. 



The extent and ramifications of 

 these vested interests is a far more dif- 

 ficult fact to be ascertained than many 

 of the physical conditions. It is pos- 

 sible to survey reservoir sites and bore 

 for foundations for dams, obtaining 

 promptly and with certainty the physi- 

 cal conditions ; but to ascertain the ti- 

 tle to or ownership of the land which 

 may be involved in the work, and par- 

 ticularly of the waters, is by no means 

 as direct a matter, and frequently long 

 and vexatious litigation must ensue 

 before the essential conditions of own- 

 ership can be established. 



The irrigation resources of Califor- 

 nia were by no means unknown on 

 the passage of the Reclamation Act. 

 Since 1888 the Hydrographic Divis- 

 ion of the Geological Survey had been 

 systematically studying the oppor- 

 tunities ; had measured streams, sur- 

 veyed catchment areas of the rivers in 

 the mountains ; had made maps of por- 

 tions of the irrigable lands ; had ascer- 

 tained the flow of many of the impor- 

 tant sources of supply; and, in short, 

 had brought together many of the es- 



