26 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



§10,000,000,' the whole making a record of increase in productive capacity 

 and a creation of agricultural wealth not surpassed in this or any other countrv. 

 The rise in land values and the value of the crops grown are not, 

 however, the chief benefits which irrigation has conferred on southern 

 California. A far larger gain has come from the beautiful landscapes created 

 in these deserts by the oases of fruit and foliage, which, Avith the matchless 

 healthfulness and charm of the climate, have made this section the resort 

 of health and pleasure seekers from all parts of the globe. The climate 

 alone would not have accomplished this. Limited trains on the transcon- 

 tinental railways from the East would not be crowded if Pasadena looked 

 now as it did when first viewed by the mission fathers, and before they 

 began at San Diego the work which makes this valley now so justly famous. 

 The cities of Los Angeles, Redlands, and San Diego are just as much cre- 

 ations of irrigation as the orange groves which surround them. Whatever 

 may be true of the remainder of the State there is no question that southern 

 California's present prosperity and its future growth depend largely on the 

 distribution and use of its water supplv. 



IRRIGATION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



Southern California has demonstrated the value of irrigation. Northern 

 California illustrates its latent possibilities. When one considers the vast 

 area of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, with a surface shaped by 

 nature for the easy spreading of water, with a soil of great fertility and a 

 marvelous climate, there is no doubt that it is to be during the twentieth 

 century a great field of activity, not of the farmer alone, but the engineer, 

 the lawyer, and the student of social and economic questions. 



The available water supply of this valley ought to make it the Egypt 

 of the Western Hemisphere. A seven years' record of the flow of Sacra- 

 mento Eiver, measured above the confluence of this stream with the San 

 Joaquin,'' shows that during that period 181,553,808 acre-feet of water ran 



' Letter from Frank Wiggins, secretary Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. 



' The summary given below shows the total discharge of Sacramento River, at Collinsville, for the 

 seven years from 1878 to 1885, inclusive. It is taken from "Physical dat^a and statistics of California," 



Report of William Ham. Hall, State engineer, 1886: 



Flow, in Hcrc- 

 feet. 



187S-7<» 26,414,302 



lK7!)-80 32,205,831 



18S0-S1 31, 922, 7.50 



1881-82 25,503,305 



1882-83 17,633,585 



1883-84 29,947,038 



1884-85 17,926,997 



Mean for the seven years 25,936,258 



