88 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



RECAPITULATION AND REVIEW. 



It is interesting to bring togetiier the entire list of claims made upon all the 

 waters entering into Honej- Lake Basin from 1872, the date of the first record which 

 appears on the books of the county, down to the spring of 1900. We shall then 

 have completed our survej- of the law of appropriation at work and be ready to 

 consider its financial, social, and legal results. 



Recapitulation of claims in Honey Lake Basin. 



Miner's inches. 



Susan River district 955, 039 



Willow Creek district 6,338,535 



Balls Canyon district 565, 544 



Long Valley district 5, 737,- 464 



Baxter Creek district 11, 600 



Honey Lake district 821, 350 



Eagle Lake district 14,201,400 



Total 28,630,932 



Here are total claims, under the rules prescribed by the California law, of the 

 bewildering amount of 28,630,932 miner's inches. In southern California, where 

 the rainfall is materiall}' less than in Honej' Lake Valley, the amount of water 

 represented by 1 miner's inch of continuous flow, measured under a 4-inch pressure, 

 is considered sufficient to irrigate 4 acres of alfalfa, or 6 acres of citrus trees, or 

 from 8 to 15 acres of deciduous trees. Making a fair allowance for the difference in 

 rainfall and climate and the consequently shorter season in Honey Lake Valley, we 

 may take 1 inch to 8 acres as the reasonable dutj' of water for diversified crops in 

 the latter locality. Upon this basis the amount of water claimed in Honey Lake 

 Basin, in accordance with the California law, would irrigate an area of 229,047,456 

 acres, which is considerably more than double the irrigable land of our entire arid 

 region, according to conservative estimates, and represents a larger area than that 

 occupied by most nations in Europe. Of course, it is not pretended that those who 

 made these excessive claims so far deceived themselves as to imagine that the vast 

 quantity of water to which they laid legal claim existed in Honej' Lake Basin, or 

 that thej- were bent upon the impossible task of irrigating the entire United States 

 from this point. But the fact remains that these claims were actually made, in 

 accordance with the law prescribed bj- the statutes of the State, and this fact has a 

 significance which should not be lost sight of when we come to consider what 

 measures of reform and constructive legislation will best promote and protect the 

 irrigation industry. 



The luminous fact which appears strikingl}' on the face of these statistics is that 

 nobody knew how much water was available for appropriation, how much they 

 needed, or, in case of those who followed up their claims with actual diversion and 

 use, how much they received. The foundation of any system of water rights is the 

 appropriation. If the method employed in getting this is faulty, the inevitable result 

 is public or private disaster, and it is likely to be both. It is clear from the foregoing 

 figures that the experience of Hone}' Lake Valley shows that the California method 

 of appropriation is utterly reckless and fraught with the gravest perils to industr}' 

 and societ}'. The evils to result from such methods might be expected to make 



