368 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



these men, as a rule, seek homes in 

 the country. Hence, home-making in 

 the country in California is being ex- 

 tended through two influences : the 

 farmer and fruit grower who must 

 make it pay, and the wealthy men of 

 the cities to whom profit is a secondary 

 consideration. With both classes, the 

 expenditures on land in order to bring 

 it to the highest state of cultivation, 

 the beautifying of homes, and the land 

 values themselves, are less dependent 

 on profits in California than in any 

 other part of the United States. This 

 at present is shown more clearly in 

 southern California than in the north- 

 ern part of the state, but there is so 

 little difference in the climatic advan- 

 tages of the northern and southern 

 parts of the state that in time the same 

 influences will operate everywhere. 



California now leads all the states 

 in the extent of its irrigated area, in 

 the value of irrigated land, and in the 

 prices paid for water. It is a state 

 where a large percentage of the new 

 settlers are from the East and kno\v 

 nothing about irrigation methods. A 

 knowledge of how to distribute water 

 with the least waste, a knowledge of 

 how to prepare land for irrigation, of 

 how to apply water to secure the best 

 results, has, therefore, in that state ex- 

 ceptional practical importance, and 

 this fact has shaped the irrigation 

 work of the Office of Experiment Sta- 

 tions in that State. 



In southern California the water 

 supply is limited and water rates are 

 high. Every saving in the quantity 

 of water used on an acre of land has 

 a direct influence on the farmer's and 

 fruit grower's profits. The cost of 

 water at Ontario is about $10 an acre 

 under the duty now obtained, and the 

 capitalized value of a cubic foot of 

 water per second, based on an interest 

 rate of 5 per cent, is not far from 

 $100,000. Hence, every additional 

 acre which a given quantity of water 

 will serve not only adds to the produc- 

 tive territory but tends to lighten in 

 a marked degree the farmer's ex- 

 penses. 



This office is making a study in dif- 

 ferent districts of California of the 

 method of applying water to crops 

 best suited to their conditions. In the 

 citrus orchards of Riverside, the soil 

 is moistened through deep furrows 

 and kept so by continuous cultivation. 

 The furrow method is not at all suited 

 to the soil conditions of much of the 

 Imperial country farther south. There, 

 copious and complete flooding gives 

 the best result. In the northern part 

 of the state, alLJ'ia can be irrigated 

 most economically by means of checks, 

 but checks are not well suited to rota- 

 tion of crops. In view of the great 

 future of this region, too much 

 thought cannot be given to the \vork- 

 ing out of the kind of agriculture best 

 suited to each section, and the adjust- 

 ment to that agriculture of the irriga- 

 tion methods suited to its crops and 

 soil. The latter is part of the work 

 of this office. 



The greater part of the water used 

 to irrigate orchards in southern Cali- 

 fornia is pumped from wells. In the 

 Pomona district, where pumping is 

 being studied this season, there are 

 about 145 pumping plants in an area 

 of 300 square miles. Many of these 

 raise water to heights of from 70 to 

 100 feet and the cost of performing 

 this service represents a large part of 

 the annual expense of raising crops. 



There are many questions connect- 

 ed with the pumping of water for ir- 

 rigation which farmers wish to have 

 answered. The kind of motive power* 

 the kind of pump, whether to have an 

 individual plant or central stations 

 from which the irrigators of a con- 

 siderable area will be supplied, are 

 examples which could be multiplied 

 till the list became tiresome. The 

 answers to these questions are affect- 

 ed by a great many conditions. The 

 availability and cost of fuel, the char- 

 acter of the water supply, and the in- 

 clination or ability of communities to 

 work together instead of maintaining 

 the individualism which characterizes 

 agriculture in regions of ample rain- 





