THE CURRENT WHEEL 



209 



Irrigation from Flowing Wells. A considerable area of orchard 

 is irrigated from flowing wells in different parts of the State. 

 Nearly everywhere in the artesian districts there are local well- 

 borers who have kept records of the strata traversed in their work 

 and can estimate closely the cost of securing water by this method. 



Lifting Water from Flowing Ditch or Stream. Where a stream 

 has a rapidity of two miles or more per hour, and a lift to a height 

 of six to sixteen feet will give head enough to distribute the water 

 over a considerable area, there is nothing cheaper than the current 

 wheel which is largely used in this State. The engraving gives an 

 end view of such a wheel. Eight pairs of arms, carrying flat 

 buckets like those of a steamboat paddle-wheel, extend from a hub 

 rotating on metal bearings. At either end or both ends of each 

 bucket are fixed wooden or tin water boxes which fill themselves 

 on entering the water, and on being brought to the highest point 

 of rotation empty themselves into a receiving trough. This trough 

 supplies the distributing ditches, etc., and its inner end is so placed 

 that it comes under the projecting buckets of the wheel without 

 interference with the motion of the arms. The current of water 

 in the channel underneath forces the buckets down stream, the 

 latter delivering in the opposite direction at the top. By using 

 a double set of boxes, one at each end of each bucket, the water 

 may be delivered on both sides simultaneously. A little experi- 

 menting will indicate the proper size boxes, which depends upon 

 the velocity and volume of water in the channel as well as the 

 amount to be delivered. 



End view of irrigating wheel. 



At the Fancher Creek Nursery, in Fresno County, a wheel is 

 used eighteen feet in diameter, and carries sixteen buckets, which 

 empty into a trough sixteen feet above the ditch. The wheel lifts 

 about one cubic foot in two seconds. 



