IRRIGATION INVKSTIGATIONS ON CACHE CREEK. 191 



as to all the uses to which the water is now applied, and large experience in its use 

 on different soils and under different conditions. 



No new appropriation should be ever permitted until it has been considered by 

 competent authority. The tribunal defining the old claims would be admirabh- fitted 

 to pass upon the new. The amount and character of the diversion proposed and its 

 effect upon other established appropriations should all receive careful considei"ation, 

 and the permit, if issued, should contain such limitations as will effectuallj- guard 

 against unlawful interference with the prior users. 



The record should show the location, use to which applied, the volume and the 

 priority of the appropriations from every stream and in every watei^shed in the State. 

 The records should be in a central office, and be so systematized that information 

 desired concerning anj"^ claim or any stream in the State could be given at once. 

 With such a record, a letter addressed to the official in charge would bring back 

 complete information as to the standing of an}' claim or the conditions on anj' 

 stream. 



But all this is only preliminary. Last and most important of all is the distribution 

 of the water to the claimants in accordance with the adjudication and the record. 

 For this an efficient administrative sj'stem will be needed. The executive officers 

 should be in charge of the record and be provided with efficient assistants in the 

 various watersheds. To this department all complaints in regard to the use of water 

 should 'be referred. This would secure prompt action and the distribution of water 

 to the party legally entitled to its use. 



With rights defined and full protection assured for all beneficial uses of water 

 and an efficient and prompt distribution to the rightful users, there is no reason why 

 the waters of Cache Creek and Clear Lake should longer run to waste. With the 

 facilities for storage at minimum cost and the unlimited opportunities for the 

 development of power. Lake Count}' has at her hand the opportunity of easy and 

 direct communication by rail and water with the outside world. This would bring an 

 easy market and increased population to her borders and the development of all her 

 agricultui-al and horticultural resources. The advantages of Lake County as a sani- 

 tarium and pleasure resort and as a region for picturesque homes can never be fully 

 realized without easier means of transportation. Cache Creek and Clear Lake have 

 in them the solution of this problem. Nor would the uses for power cease with Lake 

 County. In Rumsey and down Capay Valley and along the foothills Iwrdering the 

 Sacramento Vallej' there are abundant opportunities for the use of power in putting 

 into more concentrated form the products of this rich farming country, in lighting 

 towns, furnishing power for shops, pumping water for the irrigation of arid lands, 

 the reclamation of swamps, and innumerable other uses— all these without interfering 

 with the use of the water for irrigation or abating its value in developing the unpai-al- 

 leled agricultural and horticultural possibilities of this wonderful soil and climate. 



With proper conservation and distribution of the waters that now go to waste in 

 Cache Creek and such subdivision of the lands as would make possible even a 

 modei"ate realization of her great natural resources, Yolo County ought to furnish 

 independent homes and maintain in comfort and with much of luxury a rural 

 population of man}' times what she now supports and make of each of her towns 

 a thriving center of trade and manufacture and of social and intellectual life. 



