EFFECT OF PUMPING FROM A SHALLOW WELL ON 
THE GROUND-WATER TABLE 1 
By Walter W. Weir, 
Assistant Professor of Soil Technology , California Agricultural Experiment Station 
INTRODUCTION 
In many of the irrigated sections of California the ground-water table 
has reached a point so near the surface that drainage is required. The 
usual methods of tile or underdrainage have in some instances proved 
expensive, especially where gravity outlets are not readily available. 
As a possible means of reducing the cost of drainage the suggestion has 
been made that equally satisfactory results might be secured by pump¬ 
ing from a shallow well into which the water from the surrounding area 
was allowed to seep without the use of tile. If adequate drainage could 
be secured by this method, it would be especially applicable in those 
sections where pumping is necessary to secure an outlet for tile drains 
and where the drainage water thus developed is needed for irrigation or 
alkali reclamation. 
In order to obtain more definite information on the effect of pumping 
from a shallow well on the ground-water table and its relation to the 
drainage of irrigated lands, the experiment described in the following 
pages was undertaken at the Kearney Park Experiment Station, Kearney 
Park, California. 
SOIL 
The site for the pumping plant was chosen because it represented soil 
and culture conditions typical of a large area about Fresno. The land 
on three sides of the pumping plant was farmed and irrigated according 
to the usual practices in that vicinity, while on the fourth side it was 
more intensively cultivated and less frequently irrigated, owing to the 
experimental nature of the work carried on. 
The soil is mapped by the Bureau of Soils 2 as the Madera fine sandy 
loam and is of fairly uniform texture from the surface to a depth of 
7 feet. The excavation for the sump was made in December, 1913, this 
being the month when the water table is lowest. The soil was dry on 
the surface, but quite wet at 7 feet in depth. At from 7 to 8 feet a layer 
of grayish-colored hardpan was encountered, which, however, was seamy 
1 Based on work done under a cooperative agreement between the Office erf Public Roads and Rural 
Engineering, United States Department of Agriculture, and the University of California Agricultural 
Experiment Station. 
2 Strahorn, A. T., Nelson, J. W. ( Holmes, L. C., and Eckmann, E. C. son, survey of the eresno 
area, California, In U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Soils Field Oper. 1912, [14th Rpt.J, p. 2089-2166, fig. 56 
pi. 29-31, A (col.). 1915. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
kj 
(339) 
Vol. XI, No. 7 
Nov. 12,1917 
Key No. Cal. —xx 
