WATER APPROPRIATION fROM KINGS RIVER. 301 



The original canal regulator, which was in service from 1874 to 1880, was made 

 18 feet wide l>etween side walls and is reported to have cost $5,600. It was replaced 

 by a second one, 20 feet wide, at a cost of fS.OOO. The removal of sand from the 

 canals, which had been swept in by high water during the period when there was 

 no gate at the head of the canal, is said to have cost $3,000. The regulator now in 

 use is of the ordinary' box type. Its side walls rise to a height of 11 feet. Between 

 them are posts which support a platform or bridge that aifords convenient access to 

 the gates. The gateposts divide the space between the side walls into six openings, 

 each of which is closed with planking permanently from the top down to about 5 

 feet from the floor. 



The Last Chance Ditch was constructed in 1873 and 1871 b}' a company known 

 as the Last Chance Water Ditch Company, which was organized and incorporated 

 bj' the farmers to whose land it was to supply water. The original 30 shares into 

 which the capital stock of $30,000 was divided were a few years later increased to 60 

 shares, and the capital stock was also doubled. Only about two-thirds of these 

 shares are in the hands of stockholders. Until 1886 all operating and repair expenses, 

 about $1,000 per year, were assessed upon the stockholders, and water was delivered 

 to these without charge, in proportion to the amount of stock owned or controlled. 

 Verj- little water is sold b}' the acre. 



There has been no system of water measurement introduced. Water is delivered 

 to irrigators through a great varietj' of gates; generallj', however, through openings 

 under pressure. A canal superintendent and an assistant have charge of its distri- 

 bution. During the high-water period an attendant is kept constantly at the head- 

 gate. The canal ordinarily carries water from the beginning of February to the end 

 of July. 



The cost of canal management and maintenance during the last three years has 

 been about $8,000 per year. One-half of this amount was expended for litigation. 

 The operating expenses ordinarily are about $4,000 per year. The canal this j^ear 

 was found to be quite foul with weeds and much land in the district commanded by 

 the canal seems to have been injured by too copious subirrigation, with a resulting 

 accumulation of alkaline salts in surface soils. The area irrigated by the canal and 

 that benefited to a greater or less degree by its waters is about 20,000 acres. The 

 canal capacity has been approximated at 360 cubic feet per second. 



LEINBEBGER SLOUGH. 



This is a natural high-water channel and receives water from Kings River on its 

 south side at the same point as the Last Chance Ditch. When the Last Chance 

 Ditch was constructed, advantage was taken of the upper end of this natural water 

 course and water was diverted through it into the artificial canal. It is only within 

 the last few \ears that systematic effort seems to have been made to utilize the water 

 of the slough, although a headgate has been maintained in it for a much longer perio<l 

 just below the point at which the Last Chance Ditch leaves it. Its capacity mav 

 be noted at about 50 cubic feet per second. After flowing about 4 miles in the 

 natural channel of the slough, the water is turned into a canal having a southerly 

 direction and used for the purpose of supplying water to the lands of the owners of 



