TWENTY-ETGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



45 



If California would go to work and perfect the mutual water company 

 system we now have, this State would possess the most perfect system 

 of irrigation laws to be found in the world. 



A title to the use of water is built on a less solid foundation than is 

 the title to land. Hence, land-owners who have a water right watch 

 with jealous eyes any attempt to interfere with present conditions of the 

 law governing the use of water. 



The people recognize, in the mutual water company, a solid system 

 upon which they can rest their rights. They believe it to be possible to 

 make changes in that system for the better, but any attempt to make 

 such changes must be carefulty considered, and those making the 

 attempt must know that they are on the right track, or the storm which 

 will hover over their heads will be very like a cyclone, as was the case 

 when the late session of the Legislature attempted to upset existing con- 

 ditions by the passage of a bill that so thoroughly aroused the business 

 men as well as the irrigationists of the State- 

 Gradual changes, if wisely conceived, can be made without detriment 

 to public interests, but radical changes should be avoided. 



The best advice that can be given to the lawmakers of the State on 

 the change of irrigation laws, seems to be "make haste slowly." 



There are to-day about 250,000 acres under irrigation in the five 

 southern counties of the State — Los Angeles, San Bernardino, River- 

 side, Orange, and San Diego outside of the Imperial settlements. This 

 area includes the cream of this country. It represents the foundation 

 on which our wealth is based; and while there are large interests repre- 

 senting large capital not directly connected with the water systems that 

 have converted these 250,000 acres of desert into 250,000 acres of wealth- 

 producing gardens, still if these irrigation systems were wiped out of 

 existence, Southern California would lapse back into the condition of 

 innocuous desuetude — the condition that existed here before the 

 American occupation of the country. 



In thirty years Southern California has grown from 30,000 population 

 to 450,000, and the wealth has increased in like ratio. This wealth and 

 this population have been built on a foundation of 250,000 acres of 

 irrigated land. 



It was believed by the general public thirty years ago that the irrigated 

 area at that time had reached the limits of possibility, and that all the 

 waters of Southern California worth using were then utilized. 



After increasing in population from 30,000 to 450,000, it is now known 

 that the limit is not yet reached, for to-day irrigation developments are 

 making greater strides than ever before in the history of the country. 



During the past three years, one. plant — the Imperial Canal System — 

 has been bringing under cultivation and wresting from desert conditions 

 double the acreage now under irrigation in the five southern counties 

 outside of that system. 



