CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



PUMPING FOR IRRIGATION 



The use of pumps for irrigation is continually increasing. The 

 capacity of pumps, their ease and cheapness of operation in this 

 land of oil wells and of ponderous waterfalls whose power can be 

 transformed into electric energy, warrant the conclusion that in 

 many places water can be lifted from below more cheaply than 

 it can be brought long distances by ditch ; and that the supply is 

 more constant and subject to the users' command and convenience. 

 In all parts of the State well-boring and digging and pump con- 

 struction have advanced very rapidly. Pumping plants of all 

 capacities, from the greatest of the gasoline class, lifting five 

 thousand gallons per minute from a depth of twenty-five feet, down 

 to the plant with a throw of three hundred gallons per minute, 

 all styles of motors and pumps are being constantly multiplied. 

 These plants are being placed upon wells in the orchard or in the 

 vicinity, or upon adjacent streams or ponds. Many new designs 

 by California inventors are coming into use. It would require 

 a volume to contain any adequate account of California's recent 

 progress in these lines. Economic pumping is governed by so many 

 considerations that no general statement would be conclusive in 

 any specific case. Each orchardist must ascertain his own condi- 

 tions and then confer with trustworthy manufacturers or their 

 agents as to what will meet his requirements.* 



WATER MEASUREMENT 



The Miner's Inch. Although the miner's inch, as commonly 

 measured, is open to objection because of inaccuracy, from an 

 engineer's point of view, it is so easily applied that it must remain 

 a popular recourse. It consists in causing the water to flow 

 through an opening, the capacity of which is known, and which is 

 readily capable of adjustment to the flow in any case. A simple 

 form of this device and its use is shown in the illustration, which 

 represents a board 1 inch thick, 12 inches wide, and about 8 feet 

 long. The opening is 1 inch wide and 50 inches long, and the dis- 

 tance from the top of the board to the center of the opening is 

 exactly 4 inches on the up-stream side. On the down-stream side 

 the opening is beveled so that the hole presents sharp edges to the 

 stream. A sliding board is hung upon the top of the first board, 

 with a strip screwed along its upper edge, this sliding board being 

 wide enough to cover the opening on the up-stream side. In the 



* Full details of the cost and flow from pumps drawing from various depths and 

 operated by various motors are given in the publications of the Irrigation Investiga- 

 tions to which reference has previously been made. 





