WATER STORAGE ON SWEETWATER AND SAN JACINTO RIVERS. 385 



ous growth, there is a pronounced increase in the supply available at the pumping 

 sumps of the Sweetwater Fruit Companj-, a mile or two below. This company has a 

 frontage of about 3,000 feet on the stream bed, which enables it to develop water by 

 pumping, as heretofore described. 



The irrigation of land in the bottom above adds very decidedly to the value of 

 the water rights of this compan}\ The greater portion of the area irrigated under 

 the Sweetwater system, however, is mesa land, from which there has as yet been no 

 seepage water returning to the stream, as far as observed. 



METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION AND DUTY OF WATER. 



Water is distributed under the Sweetwater sj^stem exclusively in pipes under 

 pressure. The irregular contour of the topograph}- of the region renders this almost 

 a necessity, but it has many advantiiges, and the irrigators under the system have all 

 the water privileges enjoyed bj- the inhabitants of cities and towns, and equally good 

 fire protection, especiallj- on the lower levels. When the water is low in the reser- 

 voir, the higher lands near the maximum hydraulic grade line are supplied with much 

 difficulty. 



The pipe distributing system, as oinginally constructed, consisted of 5.64 miles 

 of main conduit, 36 inches and 30 inches in diameter, reaching from the dam to Chula 

 Vista; 1.54 miles of 24-inch pipe; 3.13 miles of 18-inch pipe; 6.80 miles of 12-inch 

 pipe; 2.22 miles of 8-inch; 28.4 miles of 6-inch, and 9.6 miles of 4-inch pipe, a total 

 of 58 miles, all wrought iron. Of this, 41 miles, or 70 per cent, is lap-welded pipe 

 put together with lead joints. A second main, 24 inches in diameter, was laid in 

 1894, on the north side of Sweetwater Valley, from the dam to National Citj', to 

 supply the high service chiefly. This line cost $65,000. Numerous extensions have 

 subsequently been built, so that the system fully covers an area of more than 5,000 

 acres. The total outla\- for the dam and distributing system has been $1,026,022.79, 

 aside from the cost of pumping plants. 



The duty of water has been discussed in previous pages in a general way. It has 

 been demonstrated during the recent protracted droughts that with an annual allow- 

 ance of 105,000 gallons per acre per annum, applied at intervals during the summer, 

 the orchards thrive. Of course continuous cultivation is required at the same time. 

 This meager apportionment, equal to 3.85 inches in average depth over the surface, 

 is sureh' a minimum allowance. A cubic foot per second, flowing for two hundred 

 days, which is the usual length of the irrigating season, would cover 1,234 acres to 

 the depth represented by this allowance. In flush seasons, when water ts abundant, 

 the use of water reached as high as 1.5 to 2 feet depth of application, equal to a dutj' 

 of 264 to 198 acres per cubic foot per second flowing for a period of two hundred 

 days. The allowance of one foot in depth, which is generally satisfactory, and which 

 the company ordinarily expects to deliver whenever it has water in its reservoir, is 

 equivalent to a duty of 395 acres per cubic foot per second, flowing during two 

 bundled days of irrigation. 



WATEB-BIGHT CONTBACTS, WATEB BATES, ETC. 



Although the Sweetwater system was completed in 1888, and irrigation begun in 

 that year, no water-right contracts were sold prior to 1892, as up to the latter date 



23856— No. 100—01 25 



