592 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



salaries for assistant engineers and super- 

 intendents. A day laborer who has a 

 complaint receives the same courteous 

 treatment and there is the same willing- 

 ness on the part of the board to investi- 

 gate. 



June I, 1910, 99.9 miles of aqueduct 

 had been excavated. Of this. 36 miles 

 was tunnel, bored for the most part 

 through solid rock at the average rate of 

 almost two miles per month. Think of 

 it ! For the last ten days of May the 

 total distance in tunnel, conduit, and 

 canal excavated was 16,983 feet, or at 

 the rate of very close to ten miles per 

 in nth. 



the: SUPPI.Y AND THi: DEMAND 



Necessity is a relentless taskmaster, 

 and it w-as dire need which drove Los 

 Angeles to its conquest of the desert. 

 However, from a commercial viewpoint, 

 the financial returns from this source are 

 small indeed compared with the revenues 

 which must accrue from the sales of 

 water for irrigation and from the dis- 

 posal of electric energy. 



The city paid $2,500,000 in round num- 

 bers for its present supply and distribu- 

 tion system. In eight years the actual 

 property value, exclusive of all water 

 rights in the Los Angeles River bottom, 

 has been increased to $6,500,000. All 

 this and much more has been accom- 

 plished from the sale of water for do- 

 mestic use. The city's daily consumption 

 now averages 35,000,000 gallons. With 

 other towns which will draw on the new 

 supply, in 1925 it is estimated 110,000,000 

 gallons daily will be required for domes- 

 tic consumption at a rate close to the 

 present one of nine and two-thirds per 

 1,000 gallons. 



The new water supply at its full ca- 

 pacity can deliver 260,000,000 gallons 

 every 24 hours into the San Fernando 

 reservoirs. These, conserving the golden 

 flood during the time of winter rains, 

 when there is least demand, will assure 

 a withdrawal of more than 300,000.000 

 gallons daily during the five months of 

 the hot, dry summer season. It will thus 

 be seen that much more than half of the 



aqueduct's capacity can be devoted to ir- 

 rigation for a very long term of years. 



In the San Fernando Valley and 

 spreading out directly beneath the two 

 great reservoirs, government reports 

 show that there are from 60,000 to 75,000 

 acres of fertile lands which can be made 

 highly productive if water can be brought 

 to them. In the San Gabriel, the Cahu- 

 enga, and other valleys, this area is in- 

 creased to more than 200,000 acres — an 

 area furnishing a market for a larger 

 amount of water than the city will have 

 for sale for irrigation purposes. This 

 several hundred square miles of territory, 

 which for years has been included in a 

 few great ranches, each comprising thou- 

 sands of acres, is being broken up into- 

 small ranches averaging not more than 

 40 acres, in anticipation of the coming- 

 of waters. 



These ranches five years ago could 

 have been purchased at from $10 to $40- 

 an acre, which is the average value of 

 lands having no prospect of water. To- 

 day they are being sold in the San Fer- 

 nando Valley at prices ranging from $60- 

 to $200 an acre. Under irrigation and 

 with citrus orchards in bearing, they will 

 command prices ranging from $1,000 to^ 

 $1,500 an acre, which in the citrus fruit 

 belt is considered an average price. 



The increase in the value of these lands, 

 has been brought about solely through 

 the city's construction of the aqueduct. 

 As yet Los Angeles has made nothing- 

 public concerning any plans it may have 

 for the benefited area to pay a share in 

 the cost of the aqueduct, but undoubtedly 

 some means will be devised by which the 

 territory will pay a just proportion, ex- 

 clusive of the annual rental which will be 

 charged for the water consumed. The 

 lands, once brought under cultivation, 

 will increase the assessed valuation enor- 

 mously. 



The discussion of electric power possi- 

 bilities has been left for the last for the 

 reason that it deals with revenues and 

 possibilities of civic greatness which are 

 larger than those of either domestic use 

 or irrigation. 



