288 lEEIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



acquired by the Centerville people, arrangements were made to obtain control 

 of the corporation known as the Centerville Canal and Irrigation Company, and a 

 transfer of their ditch property was made to the Fresno Canal and Irrigation 

 Company. This was in 1874. As soon, however, as the settlers near Centerville 

 realized what their officers were doing the demands for just treatment at the hands 

 of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company were made so emphatic that those who 

 were entitled to water in the older ditch were granted water rights in the new canal 

 for their lands in perpetuity, without limit as to quantity and free from expense 

 assessments. About 1,500 to 2,000 acres of land are thus covered. In 1875 it became 

 necessary to enlarge the cut westward from the Centerville Ditch, and to this end 

 labor was bargained for with farmers who wanted water delivered to their lands 

 through Lone Tree Creek. Thirty-five water rights were issued to farmers, who 

 completed this canal section in June, 1875. Meanwhile other parties had become 

 financialh' interested in the enterprise. It was not profitable, however, at the outset, 

 and, from various causes, a ti^ansfer of the property in 1876 to the Bank of Nevada 

 became necessarj-. The bank soon sold it to the original projector, on the execution 

 by him of a long-term note, for $28,000. By this time a number of large holdings of 

 land had been subdivided and sold in small tracts and had become dependent upon 

 the canal for water. Notable among these early colonies are Central Colony, owning 

 2,640 acres, and Temperance, Church, and Nevada colonies, each owning 640 acres. 

 These colonies, together with the Pioneer Vineyard on the F. T. Eisen tract, soon 

 demonstrated the great productiveness of the Fresno sand plains, and the development 

 of that region was rapid during the next decade. The sale of water rights had 

 progressed steadily, so that in 1884 about 400 had been issued or bargained for, and 

 their price had increased from $200 to $800 each. Later their price was fixed at 

 $1,600 by the canal management. 



A water right, as issued by the companj-, is the right to use one-thousandth part 

 of the flow of the canal not in excess of 1 cubic foot per second on a specified tract of 

 160 acres. The canal company reserves the privilege of issuing 1,000 water rights 

 without enlarging the main canal. Each purchaser of a water right agrees not to 

 use the water or permit it to be used on any other land than that for which the right 

 is purchased, nor to permit the water to run off upon contiguous land, or in any other 

 way to run to useless waste, and he agrees to return surplus waters to the main canal 

 or a branch thereof. Each water right remains subject to an annual expense assess- 

 ment, which ranges from $80 to $100. Water is delivered without any attempt at 

 measurement to each irrigator at any point on the company's ditch system that he 

 may select. No ti"ansfer of a water right can be made except with the land which it 

 covers. Each purchaser of a water right grants to the canal company the right of 

 way for ditch and canal purposes through an\' lands lying in the same township as the 

 tract for which water is bought, and concedes to the companj' the right to use his 

 private ditch provided the company does not use it so as to interfere with the delivery 

 of his water. The purchaser of a water right further obligates himself to pay to the 

 canal company annually an agreed sum (this has usually been $100), and in default of 

 payment for thirty days to forfeit his water right. The water-right agreement 

 further sets forth that the company shall not be responsible for deficiency in water 

 supply caused by drought, insufficiency of water in the I'iver, hostile diversion or 



