The record-union., 1893-08-14
FOLSOM'S WATER POWER.
Work Progressing on the GaIIatin and
livermore Canal. 7
1t VIII be Completed to Robbers Ra.
vine by January-A Big Thing
for the County.

| According to the Folsom Telegraph of
Saturday the work on the great canal,
which is being constructed by the Fol-
som Water Power Company, and which
/ is intended to furnish the various fac
! tories and machine shops of Sacramento
and those which are contemplated in
Folsom with motive power, is progress
ing nicely.
"The State contract" says that paper,
! (which embraces that part from the dam
on the American River to point above
| Folsom known as Robbers Ravine. a
distance of a mile and quarter. and
which is being constructed by convict
labor, is now more than half completed.
At the present rate of progress that part
| of the canal will be ready for the water to
be turned in, at the latest, by January.
1894. This portion of the work is the
most difficult of construction of any Sec
ton along the entire line.
''The work thus far has been through
almost solid granite, a new bed has had to
be constructed for the railroad track, etc.
but the worst obstacles have been over
come. There are over two hundred con-
victs now employed in eXcavating and
Dullbluk IdliIOdu OH tD6 state contract.
and while they perhaps do not accom-
plish as much work as would be done
| by the same number of free lahorers
| in day, there is no doubt but their work
will be more durable, as everything is
done with mechanical precision regard
less OF the time required to SO perform the
work.
There are, perhaps, few of our people
who have proper conception Of the
great importance which attaches to this
canal scheme, or what its completion
means in the way of building up this i'm
mediate section Of country, and the city
OF Sacramento and surrounding country
as well. We do not anticipate that the
canal scheme will be the means of Gre
ating any fanciful boom, such as has been
experienced IL other parts of the State
within the past few years. but we do feel
assured that it will be the means of bring
ing into existence many new enterprises
which would never have been so much as
dreamed of if the scheme for diverting
the waters of the American river into
uses for which they seem to have been by
Dature intended had not been inaug1l-
rated. The great benefits that will accrue
! from the construction of the canal now
being pushed as rapidly as possible to
I completion, cannot at this time be fairly
estimated or realized.
ut is understood that the Folsom
/ Water Power Company is to have the
canal completed to Folsom by the time
/ the State contract is finished as far as
/ Robbers Ravine. From all appearances
now the company will not be able to
reach Folsom the present season, owing,
| probably, to the stringency in money
matters. The building of the power
house at this place should have been
commenced ere this; and yet it is barely
/ possible that the work may be pushed to
completion by the lst of next February
The company is not under any obli-
4 cations 10 transmit power TO Sacramento
| by that time, however. The street rail-
way company has agreed, nevertheless,
| to use the power furnished by the Folsom
/ Water-Power Company at the date
named, provided that the company is in
readiness at the time to transmit the
same. That the power company is amply
able to finish the good work it has under
taken is not doubted by those in position
to speak advisedly upon the subject vet
/ there is scarcely shadow of doubt but it
is experiencing more or less difficulty in
obtaining the ready cash with which to