96 J. W. BOULTBEE. 



"Every drop of water from these springs and wells can be 

 utilized for irrigation, and when people of the region appreciate 

 the fact that each gallon of water has a specific value in agriculture 

 as has a pound of coal in industrial enterprise, not one drop of 

 this water will be allowed to escape unutilized, and the agricultural 

 wealth will be enormously increased." 



There are more than one thousand flowing wells in Texas, nearly 

 all of them being found west of the 97th degree of west longitude. 

 Several hundreds have been bored during the year 1891. Their 

 vast capability and adaptability for making secure an agriculture 

 always rendered uncertain under high temperature, even when 

 the rainfall if properly distributed is ample for industrial uses, 

 appears to have become a matter of general understanding. 



He further adds that in the development of such wells their 

 use for irrigation was not dreamed of originally, but now they are 

 being widely utilized. Riverside, before referred to, derives a 

 portion of its water supply from artesian wells, which as I have 

 stated are known as the Gage system. There are 12,000 acres 

 under fruit served by fifty-live artesian wells, all grouped within 

 an area of seven hundred acres, from which the water is taken in 

 flumes or cement ditches to the land irrigated. There is also in 

 the Upper San Gabriel Valley, a similar system known as the 

 Whittier, which comprises fourteen wells ; the works consist of 

 eleven miles of cement conduit and 6,200 feet of fluming on trestles. 

 The Alamosa Town Well is the source of supply for the thirty 

 miles of ditches within its corporate limits. In Utah the artesian 

 wells in the Salt Lake Valley were first used for irrigation eight 

 years ago, since when the area of cultivation has increased from 

 twenty -five to thirty-five per cent. There are now over 2,000 

 flowing wells in Utah. Within three years, and largely during 

 the past year, over 3,700 flowing wells have been sunk in the San 

 Louis Valley or basin, within an artesian area of 8,000 square 

 miles. Comparing these statistics, relating to one artesian basin 

 alone, with the statistics of our own Colony, where we have at 

 present slightly over 120 flowing wells, both Government and 



