Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-14
MOUNTAIN ARTESIAN WELLS.
The Movements to Secure Water for ir
rigation Over the Sierras.

rigation Over the Sierras.
We have frequently alluded to the arte-
sian-well district of Sierra valley. a writer
for the Reno Gazette gives an interesting
account of the region and its wells, from
which we take the following: The water
question is a momentous one here, and
when solved will make Sierra valley the
richest and most populous (for its size) in
the country. The valley is almost level, its
altitude at its eastern extremity (Summitl
being 5 200 feet, and at Beckwith 1870 feet,
the intervening country being almost as
level as floor. In z good year the land is
most productive, oats, barley and whea,
yielding on an average thirty bushels to
the acre, the nutritious bunch grass and
other native grasses flourish. while alfalfa,
where properly cultivated, yields such re-
suits as would astonish the farmer OF the
Truckee meadows, were they known. The
idea that alfalfa, to grow politically, needs
an abundance of water, is exploded by the
experience of a Sierra valley farmer. who
has thriving thirty-acre patch of alfalfa,
which is now 8 years old and daring all
that time mas not received drop of water
except that which nature has bestowed
from her reservoir in the heavens. 1t is IS
well developed now SIS the average field OF
alfalfa in the vicinity of Reno, and its
lucky owner never fails to harvest from 100
to 120 tons from it each and every year.
ARTISAN WELLS.
is probable that the method of securing
water hy means of artesian wells has never
been more generally adopted by a farming
community than it has by the farmers OF
Sierra valley. Every owner Of a ten-acre
patcn is artesian well mad, and the
five machines in the valley are kept con-
stantly employed in boring into the bowels
of the earth in search of the ife-giving
element. Nearly every boring is attended
with more or less success, the only
failures recorded being where the boring
has been made in the rolling hills or up.
lands at the base of the mountains which
surround the valley. Some of the wells
have proven Yeritable bonanzas to their
owners, yielding as high in some instances
as 300 gallons of water per minute, but
the majority range from three to twenty
five gallons for that length of time
There are about 250 wells in the valley, al
though it has been stated to Your CORE
spondent that there are 1000 here; but the
former figures are no doubt correct In
some of the wells there has been notice
able falling off in the quantity OF
water supplied, but this is attributed to
the fact that but few of the wells
"a
from the surface, the result being tina,
many have become clogged with the dirt
which has caved in in loose formations
The deepest well in the valley is ,040 feet
in depth, the smallest 100 feet, and the av.
erage depth IS 800 feet. The artesian well
is slowly bat surely solving the water ques-
ton for the people Of the valley, and IN
less the great sub.erTanean reservoir is
exhausted, it is only 4 question of time
when water spOuting from thousands of
wells will gladden. the hearts of the farmers
a STORAGE RESERVOIR DISCUSSED.
Several of the enterprising farmers, how
ever, are not satisfied to wait for the arte-
sian well, and are discussing the feasibility
OF constructing a system of reservoirs in
the numerous canyons in close proximity
to the farming lands. A notable instance
of the great waste of water is apparent in
the Adams creek, which has its head wa
tiers in LAST Chance, section of country
une1celled as summer range for
stock, and generally becomes ex-
hausted before it reaches its terminal
point, which, in hard winter, when
water is plenty, is the Middle Fork of
the Feather river. Were the waters
of this creek properly husbanded, the
artesian well-borer would never have found
employment, and instead of being twenty
years behind the times Sierra Valley would
now be considered as the farmers and
stockmen's paradise, a distinction which
its many advantages as an agricultural
country, and its intelligent and wide
awake people justly entities it to.
1t is the waste waters of this creek
which the enterprising men alluded
to are contemplating impounding a nat
ural reservoir is said TO exist in Last
Chance, the distance from the valley being
only eight miles. The estimated cost is
bat slight, and thousands upon thousands
OF gallons of water could thereby be saved
for the time when water, as it is now, is
the great desideratum.-Paci Rarql Press