WATER APPROPRIATION FROM KINGS RIVER. 263 



From the stand occupied t)\- the observer, his vision can not penetrate to the still 

 greater irrigated districts lying far to the northeast, fairly well covering the portion 

 of the east-side valley- plain between Kings Kiver and San Joaquin River, nor to the 

 broad area south of Kings River watered by the great 76 Canal. 



All of these lands lie befoi'e him, a great smooth-surfaced plain without an 

 undulation, not a hill, mound, or ridge that the ej-e can detect to break the monotony 

 of the landscape; and all of these lands, embracing an area of about 1,500 square 

 miles, are dependent upon Kings River as a source of water for irrigation, and most 

 of them without the artificial application of water would be unfit for ordinary agri- 

 cultural purposes. 



That portion of the east-side plain of the San Joaquin Valley which extends from 

 the San Joaquin River on the north to the Kings River on the south, and westerly 

 almost to Fresno Swamp, is generally refei-red to as the Fresno Plains. In the heart 

 of this region is Fresno, a prosperous town of about 15,000 inhabitants, depending 

 almost entirely upon the farming region round about it, which has been made pro- 

 ductive by water, and which was a barren, diy, sand waste before its fertility was 

 demonstrated with the introduction of water by irrigation canals. 



The foothill di-ainage of the Sierra Nevada at its eastern margin gullied out 

 channels which carried the freshet run off from the foothill slopes a few miles out 

 into the treeless sandy plain, and there it disappeared. A few of these natural water 

 courses have now been converted into branches of canals, and their flow has been 

 brought under some kind of control. That this arrangement is not wholly satisfac- 

 tory has repeatedly been made evident by the inundations which periodically occur 

 at Fresno and in its vicinity. 



Soils being saturated, the sinks of the creeks can no longer dispose of the same 

 volumes as before and the run off seeks- some outfall point farther to the west. 

 When another wet winter or two shall have further inconvenienced the people now 

 residing along the path of these storm waters, some steps will no doubt be taken to 

 make suitable provision for surface di-ainage. 



The slope of the Fresno Plains is greatest near the base of the hills. It falls at 

 first 10 to 20 feet per mile, but soon flattens to a fall of 5 to 7 feet per mile in a gen- 

 eral direction from northeast to southwest. 



The soil is for the most part a granitic sandy loam, being of heavier character 

 near the hills than near Fresno, and often fine grained enough to be locally classed 

 as white-ash land westward of Fresno. Shallow soil is rarely encountered — most 

 frequently in the "hog- wallow"' tracts northward of Fresno, toward San Joaquin 

 River. At the sinks of the water courses the soil is generalh- of a more clayey char- 

 acter and is deeper than elsewhere in this region. The general fertility of the soils 

 of the region is unquestioned. Hardpan substrata are not everywhere encountered. 

 They sometimes occur, as at points in Central Colony and elsewhere near Fresno, at 

 1 to 3 feet below the ground's surface, but generally are 10 feet or more below the 

 surface. 



The Fresno Plains are watered by the upper north-side group of the Kings River 

 canals. Lands are subdivided into comparatively small holdings, generally 20 to iO 

 acres in the many colony tracts, and 80 to 320 acres in the rest of the district. Vine- 

 yards fonning the basis of the great raisin and wine industries, orchards (including 



