IRRIGATION FROM SAN JOAQUIN KIVER. 251 



are, or 6,900 cubic feet per second. The maximum intake of the canal, claimed for it 

 bj' its president, is 200 cubic feet per second. 



The James Canal Company' (formerly known as the Enterprise Canal and Land 

 Company) claims 500,000 miner's inches, under a 4-inch pressure, or 10,000 cubic 

 feet per second. The maximum flow claimed for this canal is 200 cubic feet per 

 second. 



The San Joaquin and King^s River Canal and Irrig^ation Compan\' for its several 

 canals claims from San Joaquin River and Fresno Slough, near the junction of the 

 two streams, an aggregate of 165,000 miner's inches under a 4-inch pressure, or 3,300 

 cubic feet per second, and, in addition to this quantity, '"all the water in the river" 

 at Firebaugh. The maximum intake claimed for their canal is 1,400 cubic feet per 

 second. In addition to these filings Miller & Lux claim their rights as riparian 

 owners to an amount as yet indefinite and unadjudicated. They also use the waste 

 and seepage waters from these canals and the flood waters of the river to till Poso and 

 Temple sloughs and Santa Rita Canal, for the irrigation of their own ranches in that 

 district, and to flood their wild grass lands adjacent thereto. The maximum intake 

 of all these canals, with the exception of the latter group belonging to Miller & Lux, 

 amounts to 2,460 cubic feet per second, so that we see that on this river, whose mean 

 delivery, according to the recorded gagings of it, is 2,448 cubic feet per second, we 

 have claims made bj' the owners of canals now in operation aggregating 21,320 cubic 

 feet per second plus "all the water in the river at Firebaugh" plus the riparian 

 rights claimed by Miller & Lux plus the flood waters claimed for their ranches. 



We see from this comparison that the mean flow of the river has apparently 

 been reached by the actual consumption on the part of existing canals, and that the 

 claims to water by the companies in actual operation are nearly ten times the amount 

 of the mean flow. Evidenth' the irrigated area in this part of the State may be 

 extended only by more skillful and economical use of the waters now available, and 

 by extensive storage in the seasons of flood flow. The unfortunate lack in this State 

 of a board of water administration, together with the existing loose laws relating to 

 appropriations, naturally leads to such a condition of afl'airs as that above described, 

 and to over-recurring litigation. 



The Madera Canal and Iriigation Compan}' is the only one taking water from 

 the Fresno. According to the records of Fresno and Madera counties, it has tiled on 

 a total of 408,000 miner's inches, or 8,160 cubic feet of water per second. Of this 

 quantity 6,000 miner's inches are claimed from Big Creek and 10,000 miner's inches 

 from Raynor Creek, a natural tributary of Merced River. The flow of the river, as 

 has been shown, at its greatest mean monthh' discharge is 1,632 cubic feet per second, 

 so that the amount claimed from this stream and its tributaries is tive times the 

 greatest mean monthlj^ flow and nearU' forty-nine times its annual mean flow of 167 

 cubic feet per second. The companA* claims a maximum intake for its canal of 800 

 cubic feet per second. 



The Sierra Vista Vineyard Company has claimed, by record, from the waters of 

 Chowchilla Creek 24,000 miner's inches, or 480 cubic feet per second. 



The waters claimed by George D. Bliss and George I). Bliss, jr., for their dams 

 and canals on Chowchilla Creek, below the Sierra Vista Vineyard Company, are 

 5,000 miner's inches plus the water rights of their predecessor, J. M. Montgomery, 

 a record of whose claims the writer has been unable to discover. 



