28 FIELD OPERATIONS OF THE BUEEAU OF SOILS, 1907. 



water resources and the possibilities for the storage of water in reser- 

 voirs and its distribution under the Federal reclamation act. Some 

 preliminary investigations looking to this end have consequently been 

 carried on. A complete irrigation system for this section would call 

 for long, sinuous canals excavated through shallow rocky soils and 

 in the more hilly districts for the construction of expensive flumes 

 or pipe lines. Owing, however, to the ordinarily impervious nature 

 of the subsoils, only slight loss would result from seepage. Where 

 the production of choice fruits plays so important a part as it does 

 here, the extension of irrigation facilities should commend itself as a 

 field for investment of private capital or as worthy of Federal aid, 

 even where the first cost of installing irrigation works is relatively 

 great. 



In the valley districts only a few small isolated irrigation systems 

 exist. These consist of an inextensive gravity system, irrigating a 

 few small fruit and alfalfa tracts, in the vicinity of Bellavista, along 

 the western side of the Cow Creek Valley and a number of pumping 

 plants, under private ownership, which irrigate a few acres of vege- 

 tables or alfalfa along the Sacramento River and its tributary creeks 

 from which water is taken. The operation of these plants has gener- 

 ally proved profitable. The available supply of water for pumping 

 in Stillwater Creek and other small streams during the summer 

 months is limited, though there is a considerable underflow in the 

 channels of the streams which might be rendered available by sinking 

 wells or pits. One small steam pumping plant in the Stillwater Creek 

 bottoms used for irrigating a small tract of alfalfa is reported to be 

 capable of throwing 1,000 gallons per minute. 



Throughout the valley of the Sacramento and along some of the 

 tributary creeks considerable bodies of gently sloping land, admirably 

 adapted to irrigation but now devoted only to grazing or to dry farm- 

 ing to grains, could be furnished with water by gravity systems or by 

 pumping, so that the production of truck, alfalfa, sugar beets, or 

 forage crops on the deep valley soils would be greatly increased. 

 Near the central part of the area irrigation of the deep, gently sloping 

 lands is quite feasible, and its development should be encouraged. It 

 is probable that irrigation in the valley as well as in the upland por- 

 tions of the area will be given greater consideration in the future. 



SUMMARY. 



The Redding area has an extent of about 200 square miles and Hes 

 at the northern extremity of the depression of the Sacramento Valley, 

 being separated upon the south from the Sacramento Valley proper 

 by a low ridge of hills. It consists of rolhng or dissected uplands, 

 often wooded, traversed by the Sacramento River and its tributary 

 creeks. The greater part of the area is occupied by the upland 

 section. 



