242 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



THE MAGIC OF IRRIGATION. 



In the last three years marvelous changes have 

 taken place in Butte and Suiter counties in the heart 

 of the fertile Sacramento valley, California. "- 



Immense wheat ranches have been cut into small 

 farms; peach, fig, prune and orange groves thrive on 

 the site of former fields of grain ; cattle and hogs graze 

 in luxuriant meadows of alfalfa and comfortable homes 

 dot the plains which formerly stretched, almost un- 



Building Main Canal, Sutler county, California. 



marked and sparsely inhabited, from the Sacramento 

 River to the foothills of the Sierras; new schools, new 

 churches and new industries have sprung up all over 

 this productive region and both counties are increasing 

 rapidly in population and in wealth, yet they are only in 

 the infancy of a development which in a few years is 

 destined to place them in the front rank of the best 

 agricultural districts of the country. 



This magic in the fortunes of Butte and Sutter 

 counties has been wrought by irrigation. 



Irrigation is proving the wonderful fertility of this 

 soil to the world; it is producing incomparable yields 

 from orchard and field; it is attracting colonists from 

 other states and building up a dozen homes -where for- 

 merly there was hardly one. "Let well enough alone," 

 was long the policy of Butte and Sutter counties. The 

 wide level plain built up by rich deposits from the 

 Feather River, which at carried from the Sierra Nevadas, 

 yielded rich harvests of grain year after year. The 

 opportunity for easy irrigation from the Feather River 

 was there then as it is today. It was noted and dis- 

 cussed but the opportunity was neglected year after 

 year. Man was expending unlimited energy and mil- 

 lions of money to solve irrigation problems in desert 

 regions, remote from transportation and markets, but 

 gave but little heed to the great opportunity which was 

 presented in the Sacramento Valley. But the raising 

 of grain year after year without crop rotation, and the 

 shallow plowing, caused the harvests finally to decrease 

 and so four years ago the owners of these great ranches 

 were forced to place them on the market and the small 

 farmer, raising diversified and more valuable crops began 

 to settle in Butte and Sutter counties. 



The countrv was level, the annual rainfall was 



twenty to thirty inches, the Feather River carried a 

 mean flow of nearly 8,000 cubic feet of water a sec- 

 ond with a minimum discharge of 1,300 cubic feet 

 a second; the soil was very fertile, the land sloped 

 gently to the southwest and the Feather River ran on 

 a ridge which it had built up so that water would flow 

 from it over the land by gravity. This was the easy 

 irrigation problem presented to the men who built the 

 Biitte and Sutter county canals. 



In the fall of 1904 the work of building the Butte 

 County Canal began, and on June 9, 1905, water was 

 turned in at the headgate. The engineering problem 

 was not a difficult one, but to make sure that the data 

 was correct, J. D. Schuyler, the eminent engineer, was 

 engaged to make a report on the plans. His verdict 

 was favorable both on the engineering and commercial 

 features of the system. Since that time the system has 

 been extended until it now reaches into Sutter county 

 and supplies 50,000 acres of land in that county with 

 water for irrigation. In Butte county the water rights 

 cover 30,000 acres, the capacity of the canal being 80,- 

 000 acres with a supply of 1 cubic foot per second for 

 each 160 acres, a ratio of supply that is ample for the 

 soil and climatic conditions. 



The progress in population and production and the 

 increase in values that have resulted from the building 

 of the canal is remarkable. A large area of land has 

 been sold in small tracts and about 200 families have 

 settled in the Butte county region tributary to the 

 Feather River system of canals. Values of all prop- 

 erties have advanced, though a successful and wise 

 effort has been made to avoid an undue advance of 

 prices for irrigable lands. 



The Feather River, from which the canal system 

 gets its supply, is a torrential stream. Its banks are 



Weir in main canal, Butte county, California. 



higher than the country to the west. This topograph- 

 ical feature of the region will be understood when it is 

 explained that the Sacramento Valley is an immense 

 elongated saucer, the central drainage artery of which 

 is the Sacramento River. The Feather River, flowing 

 into the valley from its canyon in the Sierra Nevada 

 mountains to the east, pursues a southeasterly course on 

 a portion of the floor of the saucer that is above the 

 central river, and that continues its slope to the middle 



