Irrigation in California. 285 



the cost of distributing and applying water has been reduced to a 

 minimum. There the lands have been laid out with as much care 

 and precision as the architect would lay out the stones in a build- 

 ing and the mason would place them. Irrigation is conducted in 

 some Kern river districts with the greatest ease, scarcely requir- 

 ing the use of the shovel. The lands are so laid off with the 

 oheck levels that by simply opening gates in the proper order, as 

 the irrigation superintendents know how, the waters flow out and 

 cover the successive plats or " checks " in their order, without 

 leaving any standing water, and finally flowing off without mate- 

 rial waste. This is the perfection of irrigation by the broad or 

 submerging system, — a method wherein the slope of the ground 

 is first ascertained, platted by contours, and the checks to hold 

 the water, constructed with scrapers, are then run out on slight 

 grade contours — not perfectly level, but on very gentle slopes. 



There is no portion of the far southern part of the State where 

 the check method is applied as it is in Kern county. The practice 

 in San Bernardino is to irrigate entirely by running water in rills 

 between the rows of plants. Orange trees planted 24 to 30 feet 

 apart are irrigated by rills in plough fuiTOws, 5 to 8 between 

 rows, down the slope of the orchard, which slope varies from 

 about 1 foot in a hundred to 4 or 5 in a hundred. In Los Angeles 

 county they make banks about a foot high around each individual 

 tree, forming basins 5 or 6 to 10 or 12 feet in diameter according 

 to the size of the tree. Into these the water is conducted by a 

 ditch, and the basin being filled, the water is allowed to remain 

 and soak away. The low, nearly flat valley lands, when irrigated, 

 are generally divided into square " checks," without respect to 

 the slope of the ground, and the surface is simply flooded in water 

 standing 6 inches to a foot in depth. 



In the northern part of the State, in Placer and Yuba counties, 

 clover is grown on hills having side slopes of 10 to 15 feet in a 

 hundred, and irrigated in plough furrows cut around on contours 

 — which furrows are about 5 to 10 feet apart horizontally — and 

 the water is allowed to soak into the ground from each such 

 furrow. 



These are the five principal methods of applying water : by 

 the check system ; by rills ; by the basin method ; by the basin 

 method as applied to low valleys ; and by contour ditches on 

 hill sides. The method selected for any particular locality 

 is determined not alone by the crop to be cultivated, but also 



