THOMAS ROOKE. XCV. 
An extensive pumping and general power service is pro- . 
vided from the electric transmission lines of the EKdison 
Hlectric Company of Los Angeles. These consumers absorb 
the largest aggregate of power. Many of the plants con- 
sist of deep well pumps of ordinary types, but the majority 
are centrifugal plants working singly, on the shallow wells, 
and tandem on the deep ones. Some lifting water 100 to 
150 feet. Many of these pumps are said to have been 
working for the last seven years without repairs, and the 
reliability and cheapness of the service is such that gasoline 
and steam engines are rapidly being displaced. One man 
tends to operating seven pumping plants, besides perform- 
ing other duties. 
Within the last two or three years, irrigating pumps 
have come into extensive use in Volo County, California, 
and are operated from the transmission lines of the Bay 
Counties’ Power Company. An abundance of excellent 
water exists within 20 feet or so of the surface, and this is 
now being pumped for irrigating orchards. The plants are 
of various sizes, 20 HP. units being about the average, and 
are in operation all but continuously from May to November. 
At the rates charged for electricity and labour the cost of 
irrigation varies from $2 to $2°50 per acre, according to 
the character of the soil and the depth of the well, and 
numerous instances are said to exist in which irrigation 
has increased production by 75%, and on a fair average 
estimate by not less than 40%. 
The application of electricity for purposes of irrigation 
is therefore no new thing, and is without doubt practicable 
wherever there is water to pump and power to be trans- 
mitted. The commercial aspect of such a scheme depends 
on other conditions which vary more or less in each differ- 
ent locality. From an article by Mr. McKinney on the 
subject of irrigation, it appears that there.are many areas 
