USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 36
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In traveling from one community to another, in two connties adjoining, it was remarkable to observe how little each appeared to know of the extent of irrigation, or the systems, peenliar- ities, and local regulations prevailing in adjacent localities. Each community had developed a system peculiar to itself, and appeared neither to know nor care of what was going on around them in the same line of pursuit.
SAN JOAQUIN AND KINGS RIVER CANAL,
In our illustrations will be found a bird's eye view of " Poso Farm," the property of Miller & Lux, and a section of the San Joaquin and Kings River Caual and Canal Company Farm, which gives some idea of the level, treeless plain and the man- ner in which the water is distributed.
The canal heads at the junction of Fresno Slongh, the over- flow outlet of Kings River and Tulare Lake into the San Joa- quin River. A dam of brush and framework thrown across the river just below the mouth of the slough diverts water into the canal upon the west side of the valley. At the time of its con- struction, in 1871, it was the most important irrigation works that had been attempted in California, and it still ranks among the leading constructions of its class. Its total length, to the present terminus at Orestimba Creek, is sixty-seven miles, being greater than that of any other irrigation canal in the State. It commands an area of about 283,000 acres, which includes all the lands lying between it and the river, about 130,000 of which is low and naturally subject to overflow in seasons of ordinary high flood. Its capacity upon the upper portion of its course is now about GOD enbic fect per second. During the year 1879 the area irrigated was about 30,000 acres, the greater portion of which was devoted to cereals.
ALKALINE ADOBE SOIL.
The soil of the irrigated lands varies greatly in character, For thirty-five miles from the head of the canal the soil over several miles of territory below tho canal is a black alkaline
adobe, underlaid with a subsoil of hard-pan differing from the hard-pan on the opposite side of the river, in that it consists of yellow marl, and is not wholly impervious to water. This character of soil is difficult to irrigate properly, as it absorbs very little water, quickly dries out, bakes upon the surface, and requires frequent applications to produce crops, It must be carefully drained at the same time, and, indeed, it demands the utmost skill and watchfulness to avoid the many dangers attending the indiscriminate use of water.
SANDY LOAMI SOIL.
Along the river between Firebaugh's and Hill's Ferry, there are large areas of sandy loam well adapted to irrigation. Below Los Baños Creek the character of the soil is suddenly changed to a deep loam, compact, but well adapted to irrigation, and much more tractable as well as more fertile than the alkaline adobe soil further up the valley. Irrigation is progressing rap- illy upon this latter class of soils, which have, however, onjoyed its privileges but one season since the extension of the canal from its former terminus at Los Baños, to Orestimba, The farmers are rapidly availing themselves of the advantages bestowed by irrigation, and during the past fall that section has been one of busy activity in the preparation of new land for this class of cultivation.
FIRST IRRIGATING CANAL,
The San Joaquin and Kings River Canal was the first canal for irrigation, of any considerable magnitude, constructed in California, in which capital was engaged as a speculative investment, and its example has proved far from encouraging to other ventures of that character, as the revenues derived have never yielded an adequate return for its enormous cost. This canal, which takes its water through the left bank of the San Joaquin River, at the junction of that stream with Fresno Slough (the overflow outlet of Tulare Lake) and passes through the West-side Valley for a distance of sixty-seven miles, is too well known in California, at least, to require more than a general account of its history.
COST OF CONSTRUCTION.
It was constructed a distance of thirty-eight and one-half miles in 1871, and extended to its present terminus in 1877-78, The total cost of the canal, including repairs, alterations and improve- ments, is given as $1,300,000, of which $150,000 was expended in constructing the extension from Los Baños Creek to its ter- minus, The older section of the canal was originally made with a bottom width of twenty-eight feet, a depth of four feet, with side slopes of one or two feet. In 1873, the side slopes having been considered too steep for the nature of the soil, the canal was reconstructed, deepened throughout to five and one- half feet, and given slopes sufficient for a surface width of sixty-eight feet. The grade of the caual is one foot per mile.
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
In building the extension from Los Baños to Orestimba Creek, twenty-eight and one-half miles, this grade was deereased to six inebes per mile, and the bed of the canal was raised one foot higher than that of the okler channel. With the experience acquired, it has been a matter of regret with the canal eom- pany that the first seetion of the eanal was not given a lighter grade, enabling it to be placed nearer the foot-hills, and bring- ing under its command a larger area of exeellent arable land, now above its reach. The velocity of the eurrent is too great for the safety of the banks, and might have been much reduced without danger of troublesome deposits of silt, of which the river ordinarily earries but little.
HEAD-WORKS OF THE CANAL.
The head-works of the eanal consist of a regulating bridge, with forty feet elear width of opening, a dam or sluiceway fifty-five in width, between the head of the eanal and an island in the river, and a brush dam about 350 feet in lengtb, con- necting the island with the east or right bank of the river. The regulating bridge is a substantial structure founded on piles driven thirty to forty feet into the quicksand bed. The sluiceway on the west side of the island is arranged to permit the passage of steamers and barges, during the season when the river is navigable, the vessels being drawn up the steep incline of its apron by means of the capstan. In low water, when the supply is insufficient to fill the eanal by the ordinary flow of the current, gates in the sluiceway are raised, inereas- ing the elevation of the water surface several feet. These gates, which are hinged at the bottom to the floor of the sluice, lie flat upon the floor during high water, and when raised are held in position by a hook and rod on the up-stream side. The whole arrangement is known as a " falling dam," and was mod- eled after the Indian system for similar structures.
DISTRIBUTING DITCHES-NUMBER AND EXTENT.
The distributing system consists of the following primary ditehes :--
From the tenth to the twenty-first mile, thirteen ditches, averaging about two miles in length, twelve feet wide on bot- tom, and two feet deep, supplying the Dos Palos Ranch.
From the twenty-first to the thirty-ninth mile (Los Baños Creek), eigbteen ditehes one-half mile to five miles long, eight to fifteen feet on bottom, supplying the Canal Farm and tbe Badger Flat Settlement.
From the thirty-ninth to the forty-seventh mile (San Luis Creek), four ditches, one to two miles long, eight to ten feet wide.
From the forty-seventh to fifty-fourth mile (Las Garzas Creek), four ditches, each one mile long.
From fifty-fourth to sixtieth mile, ten ditches, one to four miles long, ten to twelve feet wide.
From sixtieth to sixty-seventh mile (terminus at Orestimba Creek), eight ditehes, from one to three miles long.
Total, fifty-seven ditebes, having an aggregate length of one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty miles. The sys- tem is being rapidly extended, as new land is brought under enltivation.
In addition to these ditehes, which have been constructed by the individual land-owners, the canal company have eon- structed a " loop" canal, seven miles long, parallel to the main canal and opening into it at each end, to facilitate the distribu- tion of water to the Dos Palos Raneh. This auxiliary is twenty feet wide on the bottom, three feet deep, with side slopes of one on three. Its office is to permit water to be raised to the surface and diverted into the lateral ditches of the Dos Palos Rancb, without interfering with the flow, slope, and nor- mal velocity of water in the main eanal.
HOW WATER IS REGULATED.
At intervals of tbree to five miles on the eanal are placed regulating gates, or " stop-gates," as they are locally termed, to cheek the flow of water when desired,. and raise its elevation, in order to discharge freely through the outlet-gates into the lateral distributing ditches. On the first thirty-nine miles there are six of these structures, of wbieb five are combined with drawbridges, to permit the passage of canal boats, and two are connected with waste sluiees. On the canal extension there are eleven stop-gates, of which eight are combined with wagon road bridges. The latter were not made in the form of draw- bridges, the necessity for that elass of structures having eeased with the final abandonment of navigation upon the canal. Irrigation and navigation were found to be wholly incompati- ble, without a system of loeks to avoid the annoyance to the . irrigators of opening the stop-gates for the passage of the eanal boats, and the waste of water and time incident thereto. The new and simpler form of stop-gate and hridge costs but $1,000 each, while the old form of drawbridge eosts from $3,000 to $5,000 eaeh.
Aside from these combined stop-gates and bridges, there are twelve plain wagon bridges on tbe eanal.
The old form of outlet gates to the distributing ditches eon- sisted of a massive structure provided with a heavy gate of four-inch planks, raised with a screw, the floor being placed exactly flusb with the bottom of tbe canal, and the water flow- ing under the gate with a pressure of several feet. They eost $500 each. The latter structures cost but $200 each, and are of a simpler pattern. They are usually made six feet wide, in two bays, and the floor is placed ahout two feet below the level of the hed of the channel, to better protect the wings and lower sheet piling from the erosive baek-lash of the escaping water. Loose planks, three feet long, replace the pouderous gates of the old structures, and the water enters the lateral diteh in an overfall, the quantity admitted being controlled by taking out or putting in the boards as may be required.
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CONDITION OF IRRIGATING CANALS.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CANAL.
The character of the soil for the first thirty miles of the canal is an alkaline adobe, absorbing little water, but crumbling when dry and subject to constant erosion at the water's surface. Numerous expedients have been adopted to check this erosion and maintain the banks at their normal slope. Willows have been planted along the margin, the banks bave been lined with brush in the worst places, and the slopes have been sodded with salt grass, a plant which usually thrives on that kind of soil. The latter has proven most efficacious where it was induced to grow, but is expensive. Erosion is most disastrous on the con- vex side of the curves in the canal, showing that the wash is more due to the sharpness of the curves and the velocity of the current than to the effect of the winds which blow almost incessantly in that portion of the valley the greater part of the year, aud to which the erosion was considered attributable. The plan now adopted in maintaining the canal is to add material on the outside of the banks where they are weakened by erosiou, allowing the soil to assume whatever slope it may naturally take under the actiou of the water, and presuming tbat erosion will ultimately cease when this slope is finally acquired, which is thought to be about six borizontal to one vertical. Six canal guards or section men are stationed at intervals of about ten miles, whose duties are to watch the bauks over certain sections, and to maintain them in order.
PRACTICE OF IRRIGATION.
The lands irrigated by the San Joaquin and Kings River Caual vary so greatly in character that the practice of irriga- tion is not uniform. From the point where general irrigation first begins, near Firebaugh's, eight miles below the head of the canal, to its terminus at Orestimba Creek, there is a gradual change in the quality, depth, and texture of the soil, from the minimum of absorptiveness and the consequent maximum number of irrigations required to produce crops, to the maxi- mum of absorptiveness and the minimum of applications necessary. The soils which retain moisture longest are those which absorb most water, and are consequently best adapted for irrigation. In no irrigated section of the State are the extremes in quality of soil more marked. The adobe soils do not extend the entire distance from the canal to the river, but seem to be principally limited to a strip two to five miles wide, from Firebaugh's to Los Baños Creek. They are shallow-from one to two feet deep-and nuderlaid with yellow clay hard-pan. East of this strip to the river, the soil is generally of an alluvial character, highly susceptible of profitable irrigation, but not heretofore provided with facilities for irrigation, the land being devoted exclusively to grazing purposes. On cither side of Los Baños Creek the soil is a compact sandy loam for a mile or two in width, very fortile and well adapted to irrigation. With the
exception of three or four miles along the canal where San Luis Creek spreads out upon the plains, the soil for the remaining distance to the terminus is a light brown argillaceous loam, with an occasional admixture of sand. It is thirty to forty feet in depth, compact, fertile, and highly retentive of moisture,
THREE IRRIGATION PERIODS.
The year may be properly divided into three irrigation periods :-
The first period includes the months of October, November, December, and January. More than three-fourths of the area irrigated by the caual is devoted to cereals; the period of greatest demand is therefore that in wbich these crops require watering. To guard against a dry season, those farmers who own lands wbich absorb the most water and retain it longest begin soaking their fields, prior to sowing grain, in October, continuing through the months of November, December, and January, iu some cases postpouing this first watering as late as February. On the class of lands referred to, tbis irrigation is usually all that is required to mature a crop, as with the ground thoroughly soaked, a very sligbt rain-fall of two or three inches thereafter suffices to supply tbe surface with moisture until the young grain is high enough to shade the ground from the sun, Dur- ing this period also tbe shallow adobe soils at the upper end of the canal require their first watering, but as they absorb but a small quantity of water the demand upon the total volume of water in the canal is comparatively light from that quarter. The experience of the past season has taught the farmers that it is not good policy to defer the first irrigation later than Janu- ary, and as the water rates for fall irrigation, prior to Janu- ary, are cheaper than for the season, it is probable that here- after the season of greatest demaud will be in the first period.
The second period includes the months of February, March, April, and May. During this period the grain on the shallow adobe soils requires almost constant irrigation, the number of applications necessary being from four to seven. The soil dries out and the surface bakes so quickly that if it be uot flooded every three or four weeks the crop is a failure. This is a sea- son therefore of constant demand upon the canal from adobe lands, wbich at present constitute nearly one-half of the total acreage irrigated by its waters. In this period alfalfa is irri- gated the first and second times, and the general irrigation of cereals is completed.
The third period embraces tbe months of June, July, August, and September. Irrigation is confined during this period to alfalfa, corn, potatoes, beans, and garden produce. Corn has not yet become an important crop in this section, as it does not tbrive on the adobe soils, and the deep loamy soils have not had irrigation facilities long enough to thoroughly test it as a standard product. It has proved a general failure the past season on account of the ravages of an insect which attacked
174
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
the silk. The preparation of corn land for plowing, by means of a thorough wetting, begins early in this period, or the latter part of the second, and the erop is given one or two waterings thereafter.
These facts appear to show that the season of greatest demand, heretofore in the second period, will shortly become extended more uniformly over both the first and second periods, during which the supply in the river is greatest, and that the season of least demand is during the third period.
METHODS OF IRRIGATION.
But one system is practiced in the application of water on the lands west of the Sau Joaquin River-that of flooding the surface with the aid of cheek levees, dividing the land into eom- partments. The soil does not admit of the use of the seepage method, such as is practiced in the Mussel Slough country and other sandy localities, and the surface of the laud is so nuiform that the costlier method of flooding by small ditehes, which is necessary ou rolling grouud, has no advantages, and iudeed seerus never to have been practiced here.
The general slope of the land from the eanal toward the river is from eight to twelve feet per mile, and is remarkable for its uuiformity and smoothiness. It could scareely have been better prepared for irrigation than nature has prepared it. This is par- ticularly the ease on the Dos Palos Ranch, helow Firebaugh's where the smoothness of surface permitted the distributing ditehes and check levees to be laid ont with the most exact and systematic regularity. The primary ditebes are ruu at an angle of about forty-five degrees from the direction of the caual, and are just half a mile apart. This ranch, of 5,000 acres, was first opened by the canal company as an experimental farm, to make a practical demonstration of the system of irrigation devised by the engineer in charge. This system involved a series of secondary ditches extending from the primaries on both sides, with numerous small boxes opening from them into smaller tertiary ditehes or plow furrows, running diagonally across the land in two directious, dividing the ground into diamond-shaped plats 120x150 feet in size.
FAILURE OF FIRST EXPERIMENTS.
The experiment proved a disastrous failure, after the expen- diture of $50,000, and was abandoned. The secondary and ter- tiary ditches were removed, and between the primary ditches cheek levees were constructed on six-incli eontour lines, vary- ing in horizontal distance with the slope of the ground, and an intermediate division levee was built midway between and rar- allel with the ditehies. By this method the cost per aere for labor at each irrigation was reduced to three eents, where it had formerly cost thirty-three cents, and it is thought that when gates are coustrueteil in the levees to drain the compart-
inents into those next below, the cost will be still further reduced, as it will save the labor of eutting a hole in the levee and elosing it again at each irrigation.
In other parts of the valley irrigated by this eanal the check levees are less regular in their alignment, as they follow the eontour of the surface, which is generally not quite so smooth as upon the farm to which allusion has just been made, but they present no such winding lines as are necessary in some other portions of the State. The compartments inclosed by the levees generally contain from eight to twenty-five acres, seldom more. They are, therefore, quickly filled and drained off again. This is a great desideratum, as it is the aim of the irrigators to keep the water constantly in motion, aud perform the opera- tion of wetting the lands and draining them again as quickly as possible, except in the case of dry lands beiug wetted for the first time, when the compartiments are filled to their utmost capacity, and the water is allowed to soak away.
COST OF PREPARING LAND.
The average cost of preparing the ground with ditches and check levees is about $1.50 per acre, varying but a few eents either way from that figure. The cheek levees eost about twelve dollars per mile, and are thrown up with a "V " scraper. Three men and twenty-six animals will build a mile of levee in a day. Their sides are generally too steep to be driven over with farming machinery, which is an objection. Doubtless the extra cost of constructing the levees with broad base and flat side slopes would be amply compensated for by the increased facility attained in the harvesting of the crops.
EFFECTS OF IRRIGATION.
First example-The first irrigator under the canal, below Firebaugh's-a tenant on the lands of Miller & Lux-watered thirty aeres in twelve hours with 13.5 cubic feet per second, and the labor of one man. This was at the first irrigation of the season; the second required a little less water. The dis- charge would suffice to cover the land to a depth of 0.45 feet in the time specified, not all of whieli was absorbed. Soil, alka- line adobe, two feet deep, underlaid with impermeable yellow hard-pan. Barley required four irrigations during the season; wheat, five. Yield about twenty bushels per acre. Cost of labor, per irrigation, five eents per acre.
Second example -- Seven miles below Firebaugh's, on the Dos Palos Ranch, 500 aeres can be irrigated in twelve hours with a discharge of ahout 165 eubie feet per second, running in three primary ditches, and with the labor of six men. The three ditches at that rate would irrigate 523 acres in twelve hours. The soil is similar to that of the first example. Barley was irrigated five times, wheat six times, and alfalfa seven times during the season. Yield of wheat and barley,
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THE RESULTS OF IRRIGATION.
seventeen to twenty bushels per acre; average cost per aere per irrigation, for labor, three eents.
Third example-On Miller & Lux's Canal Farm, thirty-three miles below the head of the canal, and twenty-five iniles below Firebaugh's, wheat and barley require three irrigations, and alfalfa three to four. No data could be obtained as to water quantity used. The general soil characteristies are a blaek adobe, mixed with a little sand, and underlail with yellow hard-pan, one foot below the surface; other parts of the farm are a sandy loam, and the gradations between the two form the bulk of the land. A force of seven experieneed irrigators are kept constantly employed, and from April 1st to August Ist, last season, this force accomplished the irrigation of what would be equivalent to 9,500 acres irrigated once; the average eost per aere for labor at each irrigation being thirteen cents. This eost is much greater than it would be but for the gophers which infest the alfalfa fields and burrow in the levees, weak- ening them to sueli an extent that they require a large force to keep them in repair while the water is being applied.
Fourth example-An irrigator in the Badger Flat Settle- ment, near tbe head of the supply diteh running through that thrifty community, informed us that with a discharge, esti- mated at 15.5 eubic feet per second, he could irrigate 300 acres in ten days. This discharge, for the period named, would be equivalent to a depth of 1.02 feet over the whole area. The soil is a deep, mellow saudy loam, and has been irrigated for several years. The wheat was all watered once, and a part of it twiee. Corn was irrigated twiee. The yield of wheat was about twenty-one and one-half bushels per aere.
Fifth example-Another irrigator in the Badger Flat Settle- ment uses a head of about six enhie feet per second, with which he ean irrigate 100 aeres of alfalfa in eight days, the discharge being equivalent to an average depth of 0.95 feet over the whole area. The soil is a compaet loam, six feet deep, underlaid with a stratum of black alkaline adobe hard-pan four feet thick. Beneatb this hard-pan, permanent water is found having an alkaline taste. Alfalfa is irrigated three to five times a year, water being applied after each cutting. The average cost for labor per irrigation is ten eents per aere.
FIRST IRRIGATION IN 1879.
On the eanal extension, some 8,000 aeres were irrigated in 1879 for the first time, the crop being principally wheat. Irrigation was begun late in the season, the farmers, as usual, deferring preparations in the hope of avoiding the necessity for it. When the certainty of a dry season was pretty well estab- lished by the almost total lack of rain up to January 1st, everybody hastened to throw up levces and eut ditches, and began wetting their lands. Those who irrigated Ent once raised the best erops, the second irrigation, where applied, having the effect of producing rust, lessening the yield and the quality of the grain.
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