TWENTY EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



49 



water at the head do not mean the same number put into the ground, 

 we find about six acre-inches a month the maximum used for heavy 

 crops of old oranges and alfalfa, while prunes, apricots, almonds, 

 and even peaches rarely get much over two acre-inches. Six acre- 

 inches would be about a miner's inch to two and a half acres. In most 

 years this is more than is necessary, while fine crops of deciduous fruits 

 are raised on one fourth of that and often less. And many a good crop 

 has been raised on three irrigations of only one and a half acre-inches 

 each, the third irrigation being after the crop is picked. This would be 

 a miner's inch to twenty acres. Good crops of oranges have also been 

 had with an inch to ten acres. But on most soils and in most climates 

 it is hardly a safe basis to depend on. We now have more places where 

 too little water is used than places where it is wasted. 



The acre-inch or acre-foot, based on rain measure, is by far the most 

 satisfactory way of expressing the amount of water used, and great 

 confusion exists not only from the varying nature of the inch in differ- 

 ent States, but because it is estimated not by the actual amount of 

 water delivered on the ground during the year, but by the rate per acre 

 at which it is used during a certain period, called the ''Irrigating sea- 

 son," which also varies very much. Thus if a man is entitled to an 

 inch to ten acres, this means thirty twenty-four-hour inches each 

 month, or its equivalent in some form, equaling a foot and a half of 

 rain measure a year, or an inch and a half a month. The chances are 

 that during the six months of winter he let his allowance run to the 

 sea, because he expected the clouds to do their duty. Consequently he 

 had only nine acre-inches left to use for the next six months. This 

 was all he put into the ground from the ditch. But as it was used 

 during that six months at the rate of an inch to ten acres it is called 

 an inch to ten, although if the winter part had been used it would have 

 covered the land a foot and a half deep instead of nine inches. This 

 makes rain measure or acre feet or inches the only clear way of treating 

 the subject. The other is as ridiculous as difficult, if we consider what 

 it would mean if he had used the inch of water only one month during 

 the summer. It would still have been an inch to ten acres, because 

 used at that rate. Yet the amount put on the ground for the year 

 would have been only one and a half acre-inches, or an inch and a half 

 rain measure. Had he used his full right for the twelve months it 

 would have been no more by that measure, though by rain measure it 

 would have been a foot and a half. 



In twenty years' study of this subject in many places I have found 

 the estimate of the irrigator very unreliable. The only certain way to 

 find what a man has used is to ignore his water right, or his opinion of 

 what he has used, and find from the water office the amount he has 

 ordered and paid for during the year. See if this tallies with the book 

 4 — F-GC 



