304 Irrigation and .Drainage 



the land is next to impossible with any rational use of water. 

 When one stands upon Smiley Heights, in Eediands, and looks 

 out over such panoramas of luxuriant growth as the one repre- 

 sented in Fig. 65, the reflective mind is almost convinced that 

 here is in reality the ultima thule in rural life. 



The cases now cited may suffice to illustrate the manner in 

 which water is diverted from streams for gigantic irrigation 

 enterprises, where the government itself does the work, as in 

 India ; where state aid supplements the united efforts of a dis- 

 trict, as in the case of the Kern river canal, and where one or 

 more stock companies develop the system as a means of finding 

 permanent investment for capital, as is the case with the system 

 worked out to meet the needs of the Bedlands district. 



It is, of course, practicable for individuals to divert portions 

 of the water from streams passing through their property, pro- 

 vided the fall is such as to permit of this being done, and 

 where large quantities of water are to be used there is seldom a 

 cheaper or more effective method of supplying water, if only 

 the land and the stream are properly related for it, and the 

 water is not already held by prior rights. 



DIVERTING UNDERGROUND WATERS 



In mountainous and hilly countries, where river valleys have 

 become deeply filled with sands and gravels, it frequently happens 

 that much of the water of the drainage basin flows below the 

 surface through the valley sands and gravels, the bed of the 

 channel becoming nearly or quite dry for long distances. 



In such cases, where the slope of the valley is considerable, 

 and where the water has not fallen too far below the surface, 

 tunnels are occasionally driven into the sands and gravels up 

 the valley at a small grade until the water-bearing beds have 

 risen above the line of drift sufficiently to allow the water to 

 percolate into the tunnel and be led out upon the surface. 

 Sometimes it is only necessary to dig open ditches, making them 

 deeper up stream, to develop considerable quantities of water on 

 the same principle. 



