130 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



be duplicated during coming years as the interests extend and develop. The question 

 now confronting this State is, Shall these expenditures be directed along well- 

 considered and systematic lines, or shall thej^ be expended as in the past and be as 

 productive of inadequate results, delays, and litigation ? 



(6) Should there be a central office of record of claims or titles to water in place of the present 

 separate county records, and what suj)ervision or control should be exercised over rights to be acquired 

 hereafter. 



This question is answered with the first. 



(7) What steps should be taken to secure the fullest conservation and use of water which now 

 runs to waste? The discussion of this question to include State or national control and aid, the 

 legislation needed to define rights to stored water, and to determine who is entitled to the water thus 

 stored. 



(1) The checking of the rate of run off by forest protection and extension through 

 Government, State, and count}' aid. 



(2) The withdrawal from sale or settlement of all forest lands, or mountain lands 

 capable of being afforested, and the sale of timber under proper control, and the 

 devotion of the funds thus realized to forest protection and extension. 



(3) The repeal of laws which permit of the exchange of deforested lands for other 

 lands of the public domain. 



(4) The restoration to the public domain of all forest lands the title to which rests 

 on fraud, perjury, or subornation of perjury. 



(5) The appropriation of a revolving fund of several million dollars, fractions of 

 which can be used in those States which make an equal sum available for the con- 

 struction of storage reservoirs. The waters of and rights to these reservoirs to be 

 sold to land owners or cities and towns, and this fund returned to the revolving fund 

 for the construction of other reservoirs in the same State. The construction and 

 disposal to be under joint Government and State control. 



Appendix. 

 THE USE OF THE WATER OF YUBA RIVER. 



By H. D. H. CoNNiCK. 



The irrigated lands in the Yuba River drainage basin are principally in the 

 Browns Valley irrigation district and near Smartsville. Irrigation elsewhere is 

 confined to small gardens and orchards of a few acres in and adjacent to the villages, 

 such as Sierraville, Downieville, Camptonville, North San ,hian, Woodville, Granite- 

 ville. North Bloomfield, Washington, French Corral, Columbia Hill, Cherokee, 

 Sweetland, Birchvillc, etc. Operations here are, however, insignificant when com- 

 pared with the irrigation practiced with water from Yuba River in the drainage 

 basin of Bear and American rivers. There by far the greater portion of the Yuba 

 River water used for irrigation is used in the fruit districts around Auburn, New- 

 castle, and Pcnryn, between Dutch Flat and Roseville. 



