252 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



DISTRIBUTION OF WATEB AMONG IRRIGATORS. 



In no one of the systems described is the water measured, but, when sold, is 

 dealt out bj^ the superintendent of the canal in amount sufficient to satisf}- the irri- 

 gator, who is charged so much per acre irrigated. Both the company selling the 

 water and the farmer buying it admit that the water would be used more wisely and 

 economically if sold by measure, but each party to the contract objects to the measure- 

 ment of water — the companj' on the ground that the measurement would take too 

 much time and trouble, and the irrig-ator because he feels that he would not be 

 treated as liberally as at present. The writer does not doubt that the sale of water 

 bj' measurement would lead to a greatly improved system of conducting the water to 

 the lands and applj-ing it to them, as well as to much more skillful and economical 

 use of it; and would, undoubtedly, greatly increase the duty of water in this 

 district. 



The water of the East Side Canal is almost exclusively used upon the Stevenson 

 and Mitchell lands at its extremity. A small quantity is sold to farmers in the 

 vicinitj'. Each farmer draws off the quantitj- that he believes his fields need, and 

 pays for it in cash, the charge being $2 per acre irrigated, , or $2.50 if the water is 

 not contracted for before the 1st of January. The canals and gates are under the 

 control of a superintendent, but all small irrigating ditches must be constructed by 

 the farmers at their own expense. 



The San Joaquin and Kings River Canal and Irrigation Company sells its waters 

 to anyone wishing to purchase them. The public water rates of the company for the 

 j-ear of 1900 are as follows for any part or all the season between Juh- 1 and the 

 following June 30: For alfalfa, $2..50 per acre; for cereals and corn, $2 per acre; for 

 orchards and vineyards, $2.50 per acre; for market gardens, $5 per acre; for water 

 supplied between July 1 and September 1, for second crops of anj- kind except 

 alfalfa, $1 per acre. Lower rates than these have been established in Stanislaus 

 County by the board of supervisors, but their authority in this respect is now being 

 contested in the courts b^- the company'. 



The irrigation water from the San Joaquin and Kings River Canal and Irrigation 

 Company is supplied upon the written request of the irrigator, and under the super- 

 vision of the canal superintendent; and is sold at so much per acre, the quantity 

 supplied being sufficient to satisf j' the irrigator. 



The sale of water by the Madera Canal and Irrigation Companj- is conducted 

 differently from that of the others. Water rights are sold to subscribers or stock- 

 holders at $5 per acre. The owners of these rights then pay $1 per acre per year 

 for the use of the water. Nonstockholders pay $1 per acre for the first irrigation of 

 their land, and $1.50 per acre for each subsequent irrigation. These latter rates for 

 nonstockholders were ordered by the Madera County board of supervisors in 1898. 

 A large number of nonstockholders, owning about 6,000 acres of land, take water at 

 stockholders' rates as before stated, b}' virtue of the purchase originalh- of theii' land 

 with water as an appurtenance thereto. This form of contract just described for 

 water is not satisfactorj', either to holders of water rights or to ordinary irrigators. 

 The former complain of their obligation to pay $5 per -acre for each acre which they 

 at first contracted to irrigate, whether afterwards they wished to irrigate it or not; 



