392 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



certainty every j'ear, as it requires but an average depth of run off of 3 inches over 

 the watershed to do it. Inasmuch as the reservoir has not filled in any year since 

 1895, it is an evidence of the paucity of precipitation and the severity of the protracted 

 drought which has prevailed in southern California in all that period. 



THE IRRIGATED LANDS. 



The Hemet Dam was built by the Lake Hemet Water Company for the sole pur- 

 pose of supplying a tract of 7,000 acres belonging to the Hemet Land Company and 

 the three or four individual stockholders. The water is convej-ed to this tract from 

 the diverting dam at the mouth of Hemet Creek, or South Fork, through 3.5 miles of 

 flume, discharging at the mouth of the main canyon of the river into a box at the 

 head of a 22-inch riveted steel pipe 2 miles long. This pipe carries the water across 

 the channel of ths river and out upon a mesa to a measuring box, which discharges 

 into a masonry-lined open canal and flume 5 miles in length, that in turn empties 

 into a 10-acre distributing reservoir. From this reservoir the distribution through 

 the tract is made by small, lined ditches and flumes, of which there are more than 30 

 miles in all, covering the entire tract. 



Water is also delivered under pressure from the reservoir to the town of Hemet, 

 passing through a filtering or straining apparatus to clarify it and take out all vege- 

 table matter. The tract is subdivided into smaller tracts of 5 to 20 acres, a consider- 

 able number of which have been sold to farmers residing upon them. These tracts 

 are chiefly planted to deciduous fruits — apricots, peaches, pears, nectarines, prunes, 

 and figs, all of which thrive in the rich, mellow soil of that section. The elevation of 

 the tract is all above 1,600 feet and is not adapted to citrus fruits. The ai-ea actually 

 irrigated is about 1,200 acres, and the duty of water or the volume required annually is 

 from 1.5 to 2 feet in depth, or 1.5 to 2 acre-feet of water per acre of land. 



WATER-RIGHT CONTRACTS. 



All of the land under the system is sold with a clause in the deeds apportioning 

 "one-eighth of 1 miner's inch of perpetual flow of water from April 15 to November 

 15 of each year for each acre." This would be equivalent to 1.06 acre-feet of water 

 per acre, which has been found insufficient for satisfactory^ irrigation. The rates 

 charged for water are $2 per acre per annum,' with an additional charge of $1 per 

 acre for each service of a tract during the nonirrigating season, which is stipulated 

 to be from November 10 to April 10. 



There has been no litigation between rival claimants to the water of the stream, 

 and none over the rates at which the water is sold. 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



The investigation of this subject has impressed the writer with the fact that the 

 present method of filing and recording claims to water under the laws of this State 

 is extremely unsatisfactory, indeterminate, and unbusinesslike, leading to endless 

 litigation and confusion. The system should be replaced b\' something more intelli- 

 gent, positive, and rational. Filings and claims to water should l)e reduced to actual 

 title, as clear and unassailable as titles to land. This can be accomplished onl}' by 



