314 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



BORLAND PTJMP. 



The Borland Pump is located on a small west-side branch of Fresno Slough, 

 about 1.5 miles below the Lee Pump. This plant was installed in 18t)9 at a cost of 

 about $8,U00. The 26-inch centrifugal pump is driven b3' a 150-horsepower engine. 

 Two thousand acres are irrigated with its water at a cost of 30 to 35 cents per acre. 

 The owner of this plant is involved in litigation with the owners of the San Joaquin 

 and Kings River Canal, who claim that the taking of water from Fresno Slough for 

 irrigation purposes is adverse to their interests. 



The irrigation accomplished by the several pumping plants just enumerated is 

 supplemented by a fifth portable plant, which is put in service at any point of the 

 slough where most required. 



METHODS AND PRACTICE OF IRRIGATION. 



Of the Kings River canals only one is owned by an irrigation district. One is 

 owned by a corporation whose canal interests are entirely separate and distinct from 

 the ownership of the land iri-igated. 



The rest of the canals are owned by companies or corporations whose stock is 

 for the most part in the hands of the landowners. The stock in such cases generally 

 represents a proportional interest in the water, and the stockholder becomes a pre- 

 ferred user of the water. Sometimes the canal company sells surplus water to land- 

 owners who hold no stock; sometimes the individual stockholder is permitted to sell 

 his surplus in this way. This practice occasionallj' disturbs the reliability of service, 

 as it occasionally results in the call for more water through a canal branch than it 

 can supply. 



The irrigation works on Kings River are throughout of a cheap but effective 

 character, serving their purpose fairly well, but typical in a measure of the unsettled 

 conditions relating to the rights to use water. Pei-manent structures are practically 

 unknown. The dams in the main channel of the river — the designation "weir" 

 would perhaps be more appropriate — are constructed of cobbles arid brush, repaired 

 as may be necessary after each freshet (PI. XXVII). The water not diverted flows 

 over these and they are frequently cut out in whole or in part during the flood stages 

 of the river, but are easily replaced. Water apportionment to the several canals 

 would be greatly facilitated if there were fewer points of diversion; if, for instance, 

 the canals of each group could be served through a common trunk canal. The canal 

 gates throughout are timber structures; some of heavy, some of very light materials. 

 A well-constructed gate serves six to ten years and is so inexpensive and easily 

 adjusted to varying requirements that it will probably be long before any masonry 

 structures will be seen on the river. 



Tjere is not a canal or ditch on the river which has yet introduced a careful sys- 

 tem of water measurement, or even of apportionment, to irrigators. This is due to 

 several causes. In the first place, water is not sold as an ordinary commodity. 

 In every canal, even when the quantity to be delivered is specifically named, the 

 unit of measurement represents only a proportional part of the flow of the canal, 

 based on the number of shares of stock owned or rented, on the number of water 

 rights held, or upon the area to be served with water. This apportionment is n*^ 



