374 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



been compiled by him for publication elsewhere, but was cheerfully contributed for 

 use in this connection. He also acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. John E. Boal, 

 general manager, for information contributed and attention shown. 



The cost of pumping plants erected in 1899 was $27,000, and about $10,000 was 

 expended or to be expended on additional plants in the current j^ear of 1900. The 

 cost of pumping, including interest on machinerj', depreciation, etc., was estimated 

 at 3.5 cents per 1,000 gallons, which the farmers and fruit growers agreed to pay, in 

 addition to the standard rates, in order to tide over the emergenc}- without serious 

 loss of fruit crop or injury to the orchards. The extra rates collected, however, did 

 not quite cover the cost at the close of the year 1899, and in the current j'ear, 1900, 

 the I'ates were raised to 6.5 cents per 1,000 gallons to cover the cost of additional 

 development for the season. 



The general results of irrigation by the installed emergencj' pumping system 

 have been quite gratif\"ing in the main. The orchards have not died or suffered 

 severely, and in fact have continued to bear heavily, although severel3' pruned to 

 enable them to endure the drought. A number of orchardists and landowners, besides 

 the Sweetwater Fruit Company, have dug or bored wells, developed water, and 

 installed independent pumping plants, withdrawing their lands from the company's 

 system for the time being. 



Considering the limited area of water-bearing gravel and sand beds capable 

 of stoi'ing water beneath the surface in its voids, the exceedingh' fine texture of the 

 sand in the greater part of the valley and the slow percolation to the wells through 

 it, the results achieved in overcoming the unfavorable conditions imposed by nature 

 are quite remarkable, and reflect credit on the company and its engineer, manager, 

 and other officers. 



RIPARIAN RIGHTS. 



The application of the English common-law doctrine of riparian rights to any of 

 the streams of arid America is a misfortune which most Western States and Terri- 

 tories, except California, have avoided. The application of this doctrine to California 

 was made b3' a bare majority of one of the supreme court of the State in the famous 

 decision rendered in 1881 in the case of Lux v. Haggin. Always inapplicable in a 

 drj^ country where irrigation is required, it is particularly so when applied to streams 

 of an intermittent character which can not be utilized without storage reservoirs. 



The attempt to interfere with works of public necessity' and importance by the 

 assertion of this doctrine, after the expenditure of large sums of money, will always 

 be made as long as the pernicious doctrine is adhered to in this State. The courts 

 have been asked to order the removal or destruction of two large dams in San Diego 

 County to satisf j- riparian rights — viz, the Sweetwater and Lower Otay dams — and 

 that the litigants did not succeed in accomplishing their purpose in either case was 

 not due to an}' lack of destructive power in the law. 



The first case of this kind was a suit in equity in the circuit coui't of the United 

 States, ninth judicial circuit, southern district of California, and was entitled William 

 Doyle V. The San Diego Land and Town Company, William G. Dickinson, J. D. 



