The record-union., 1895-09-10
WHOLESALE IRRIGATION
RENDERED PRACTICABLE BY THE
FOLSOM POWER.
Benefits to Sacramento County Sure
to Come Through This
Agency.

There are In this county many thou
sands of acres of land which can be
irrigated to the very best advantage by
means Of the wonderful facilities afforded
by the great power system recently per-
fected at Folsom, which furnishes an i'm
mense volume of water for power and for
irrigation purposes, and rendering
available great plenty of water to sup
ply almost the whole area of Sacrament to
County for both private and municipal
use.
With an unlimited supply of water and
admirable facilities in the way Of reser-
voir sites, it is entirely feasible to con-
struct an irrigation system as extensive
and complete as there will ever be any
need for. Undoubtedly it would take
many years to elaborate every detail OF
this vast system, and it will consequently
be the policy of the company to first con-
struct works which will supply the lands
most in need of irrigation, and which
will the most readily yield profits there
on. Taking it for granted, however, that
q complete system of irrigation to cover
the fully 100000 acres of tillable lands,
scribed. would require many years of
time and large outIays of capital to con-
struct. Let us for few moments con-
slider what the construction of these
works promises for the future of Sacra-
mento City and County. In this connec-
ton a most instructive comparison can
be drawn from what has actually been
accomplished in Italy by means of irriga-
ton.
Sacramento City. situated on the Sac
ramento River, at the confluence of the
American, holds very much the same
position with reference to that area
which may be called the American
River Basin''-as does the city of Milan
hold with reference to the Milanese Ba-
sin. This Milanese area is about the
same extent as the area included in the
American River Basin, which is bounded
on the south by the Costumes and on the
north by the Bear River, and OF which
Sacramento City, in q sense, holds the
kew, BY the almost perfect system OF
irrigation (which, it is true, has been the
gradual outgrowth of hundreds of years.
the Milanese Basin has been enabled to
support population of over 700 souls to
the acre. Milan, as city, has grown to
have q population of over 250, 600 inhab-
itants. Many of the canals threading
this territory are for transportation, as
we'll as irrigation, and bring the pro-
duce of the surrounding country into
and through the city. Not only is the
city thus supplied with produce by water
transportation, but its sewage is entirely y
disposed of by one of the minor canals,
into which it is discharged afterward to
be used for the fertilization of farming
lands in the remote neighborhood. No
more densely populated territory and
prosperous community exists in Europe,
and it may safely be claimed that this is
all the work of irrigation.
Our average Sacramento County farmer
will tell us he has no need for irrigation;
that he is able to readily raise crops OF
cereals, and to pasture animals, on the
system at present procuring; that the
rainfall is sufficient to mature crops, un-
less it be in years of extraordinary
drought. The all-sufficient reply to this
is that these works for irrigation of the
Lombardian plains have been carried out
in country whose annual rainfall is 36