868 IRKIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFOBNIA. 



Some 4 or 5 miles higher up the stream, in the Jamacha Valley, a development 

 and diversion of underground waters was made and installed about 1896 by George 

 L. Davis. The development was made by means of an inverted flume placed about 

 10 feet under the surface. About 40 miner's inches of water is said to be available 

 by this development in the dry season of the current year, 1900. The water is raised 

 to the surface and delivered to a reservoir with some 350 feet lift bj' the use of a 

 25-horsepower gasoline engine. 



Some 4 miles higher up the stream on sec. 16, T. 16 S., R. 1 E., Mr. R. C. Allen 

 has a well, dug in 1893, 10 feet in diameter, 25 feet deep, and 1,000 feet from the 

 bank of the stream channel, from which he pumps water to irrigate his vinej-ard 

 and olive orchard, using a Webber high-lift centrifugal pump and an 8-horsepower 

 gasoline engine. The maximum lift is about 70 feet, but much of the water is lifted 

 but 10 to 15 feet. In ordinary seasons he can pump 35 to 40 miner's inches, but in 

 1899 and 1900 he was able to draw only 25 inches from the well. The well was rather 

 unsatisfactory prior to the freshet of 1895, and gave a meager supply of water, but 

 the flood waters of that freshet filled the river bed with sand and raised the plane of 

 saturation throughout the vallej' to such an extent that the well has since been inex- 

 haustible with the plant installed. Where the water level was formerly 14 feet below 

 the surface in the well, it now stands at 7 feet. 



The well was sunk by means of a casing or shoe of galvanized iron, so perforated 

 as to permit water to enter, but to keep out quicksand. This shoe is 5 feet in height, 

 and heavily braced with angle irons inside. Above this shoe the lining of the well 

 was continued with a circular brick wall of the same diameter, reaching to the surface. 

 It was hoped to be able to pass through the quicksand by this device, but they had 

 to stop in the quicksand at a depth of 25 feet. 



At the mouth of Lawson Creek, Judge W. A. Sloane has a ranch irrigated with 

 water taken from Lawson Creek. The ditch has a capacity of 10 to 15 miner's 

 inches, and the area irrigated is 30 to 40 acres. 



There are also several small irrigation plants in Green Valley, Japatul Valley, 

 and Viejas VaUey, with water from the living streams, and in the main valleys of the 

 stream below are numerous wells from which water is pumped for irrigation and 

 domestic use on a small scale, none of which have corresponding claims to water on 

 file in the county records. The aggregate of these is small and unimportant. 



Below the dam a development and appropriation of underground water was 

 made in 1898 without filing a claim to it in the county recorder's oflice, by Mr. C. A. 

 Hardy, at the Bonnie Brae Alfalfa Ranch. A sump was excavated by scrapers and 

 teams, and water percolated into it from the sides through the sand. A 4-inch cen- 

 trifugal pump, actuated by a 4-horsepower gasoline engine, was installed and pumped 

 about 25 miner's inches of water to supplement the inadequate supply of the Sweet- 

 water system. A fine growth of alfalfa was maintained by this means, but the con- 

 stant scraping with teams required to keep up the supply in the sump pit, and the 

 co.st of pumping, rendered the scheme unprofitable, and it was abandoned in August, 

 1898, the land reverting to the San Diego Land and Town Company, from whom it 

 had been purchased on a partial payment basis. 



