22 IRKIGATION INVESTIGATIOKS IN CALIFORNIA. 



PLAN OF THE WORK. 



The names of the experts in charge of these investigations and the 

 location of their districts are given on the map of the State, on page 32. 

 Their reports follow, in geographical order, beginning in the north and 

 ending with the most southerly stream studied. 



In order to define the limits of the inquiry and secure unifoi-mity in the 

 discussion, a letter of instruction was prepared which outlined the field to 

 be covered. This letter was based largely upon a petition of some of the 

 re^ji'esentative citizens of California, addressed to Dr. A. 0. True, Director 

 of the Office of p]xperiment Stations, and as this investigation really 

 took its form from its statements, the petition, with an extract from the 

 instructions, are both included: 



To Dr. A. C. True, 



Director, Office of Experiment Statiotm, U. S. Department of Agriculture: 



The undersigned earnestly desire that Mr. Elwood Mead be detailed by the Department to 

 conduct a series of irrigation investigations in Cahfornia, and trust that you may feel justified in 

 forwarding this request to the honorable Secretary of Agriculture with your approval. We have, of 

 course, ascertained that the proposed detail will not be contrary to Mr. Mead's inclination or his 

 judgment. 



We respectfully submit that nowhere in America are there irrigation problems more important, 

 more intricate, or more pressing than in California. Neither are there any whose study would be 

 more greatly instructive. We can offer, we presume, examples of every form of evil which can be 

 found in Anglo-Saxon dealings with water in arid and semiarid districts. Great sums have teen lost 

 in irrigation enterprises. Still greater sums are endangered. Water titles are uncertain. The litigation 

 is appalling. 



Among the things necessary to be known before we can hope for well-considered legislation 

 upon the conservation and distribution of our waters are the following: 



First. The amount of water in the streams. 



Second. The duty of water in the different irrigation basins. 



Third. The claims iipon the water, collated by streams and not by counties as now. 



Fourth. The nature of water-right titles. 



Fifth. The adjudicated claims upon the waters. 



Sixth. The lands now irrigated and susceptible of irrigation. 



Seventh. The possible increase of water for beneficial use by storage in each system. 



Eighth. The extent to which the irrigable area can be increased by better methods of distribution 

 and use.' ^ 



'Signed by E. J. Wickson, acting director University of California Experiment Station; J. A. 

 Filcher, manager State board of trade; William Thomas; David Starr Jordan, president Leland Stanford 

 Junior University; E. B. Pond, president San Francisco Savings Union; William Alvord, president 

 Bank of California; Charles H. Gilbert, vice-president California Academy of Sciences; Marsden 

 Manson; T. A. Kirkpatrick, vice-president P. C. M. M. D. Company; E. E. Patten; Grant S. Taggart; 

 Frank Soule, |)rofe.ssor of civil engineering. University of California; Julius Kahn; Victor H. Metcalf ; 

 (iernian Savings and Loan Society, by B. A. Becker, president; E. J. Le Breton, president French 

 Savings Bank of San Francisco; California Safe Deposit and Trust Company; W. E. Brown, vice- 

 president Crocker- Wool worth National Bank; Hibernia Savings and Loan Society, by Robert J. Tobin, 

 secretary; M. H. de Young, San Francisco Chronicle; J. M. Gleaves, president California Water and 

 Forest Society; David M. tie Long, manager Nevada and Monetta placer mines; R. H. Goodwin, 

 United States deputy mineralogical surveyor; Frank W. Smith; Ernst A. Denicke, president Germania 

 Trust Company; C. E. Grunsky, civil engineer; George C. Perkihs; Andrew W. Kiddie, United States 

 deputy mineralogical surveyor. 



