THE WEALTH OF WATER

Shannon News, 7 August 1925, Page 3

THE WEALTH OF WATER

IN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. VALUE OF IRRIGATION, Twenty years ago Los Angeles was a town of 100',0u0 inhabitants. Today it is a city of 1,200,000 inhabitants. Around it is a fertile, progressive country that is growing in population and primary products every year.

(One of the reasons for the progress of Los Angeles is the progress of San Joaquin Valley, situated between Los Angeles and San Francisco, a great stretch of fertile country, almost entirely cut off from the anger of the elements on every side by mountain ranges, a pleasant garden of sunshine and warmth.

At present on a visit to Christchurch is Mr. J. R. Smith, who can tell a very interesting story of the progress of the valley. A semi-arid country, the sandy loam of the .valley would grow about as much as an asphalt road were it not for water, and with the rainfall averaging about nine inches a year, the resourceful American who settles in the valley lias sink wells for his wealth. Fortunately It is not necessary to search for water. All one has to do is to sink a well at any required place and up comes the aqua pura. It is in their excellent irrigation methods that the Americans hav. made the valley a very fertile district. For six months'in the year tilde might not be a drop of rain, although when the rainy season comes along it grows a crop. During the- dry months Mr. Smith has a scheme of continuous irrigation that works d.t y and night oh his 100 acres of alfalfa, or lucerne, fields. Flooding eight acres a day, liq maintains in, crop that repays with seven or eight cuttings a year. ■ ■ ,

A couple of wells, sunk about about 140 to 150 feet, provide, the water, and electrically-worked pumps send it into a reservoir about an acre in extent, and five feet deep. The store of water is situated at the top of land with a gradual slope, and this is cut. into sections about 400 feet deep, divided by ditches running from one side to . the other.' Each section of lapd has been surveyed in 100 ft. plots and levelled so as to ' make the irrigation equal in all parts. Lead ditches, running from the reservoir and cutting the main ditches at right angles, carry the water to whatever section. it is, required. These are about 33ft. apart, and, after the water has been run x > the particular plot wanted, the opening of headgates floods the land. Thus the 100 acres is flooded in plots 33ft. by 100 ft. in area. The water can be brought down when required and shut off when required. And, properly watered, the land is a marvel .of fertility-. This is enough to make the average New Zealand farmer, who is flooded sometimes and roasted al others, take tb carpentering. It costs about 40 dollars, or £B, an aerd to level the ground, but the initial outlay once over the producer .gets venter when and where and how he wants it. In some cases the water is . run over the land through doncrete pipes, and here, of course, the outlay ii very large.

Mr. . Smith also has 45 acres in grapes, growing in the open, and hero the water is run on either side of ’no.- of vines, planted at intervals of about 7 feet, with about 20 feet sep grating each line. After being picked the grapes are laid out in the sun on trays, and dried by the sun, and then they are taken to a great distributing centre, to be sent all over the: world. Many modern methods are followed ■in reaping the crops that this wealth of .easily-controlled water has brought about. Expediency in handling hnd dispatching the grown product means increased output, and the Americans make the fullest use of the wonderfill opportunity nature has thrown in their way in the San Joaquin YaHij'.