The record-union., 1898-04-07
new PLAN FOR IRRIGATION.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES CAPAY
VALLEY.
How Thousands Of Acres Are to be
Thoroughly Irrigated at
Small Expense.


costly canals. to be supplied by water
pumped by steam power, or diverted
by means of a dam on Cache Creek,
costing an immense sum of money, the
agent of the company. William FL.
Mills, recently conceived the idea shat
the orchards in the upper half of Ca
pay Valley could be irrigated by means
of a portable pumping plant, operated
by a gasoline engine, the water, TO be
carried by a pipeline laid on the sur
face of the ground and delivered at any
desired point.
To test the matter the company re-
Gently procured a Krogh pump, set
up on a specially constructed wagon, to
be hauled from point 10 point along
Cache Creek and operated on the bank
of the stream at any point where water
was needed or desired for irrigation
purposes.
This pump was last week sent TO
Guinda near the northern end OF Ca
pay Valley, and on Tuesday last it was
taken to the bank Of the creek for the
proposed test. A line of eight-inch,
lightweight pipe, such as hydraulic
miners use, was laid from the pump
across a stretch of old creek bottom
about seven hundred feet to the orig
tnal bank, and up to the high ground,
an elevation Of from twenty-five to
thirty feet. This was all done by three
men in a few hours. 1t would have
been accomplished in much less time
but for the fact that the pipe was new
and not as easily jointed as If it had
been used few times.
1t had been the intention of Super
tntendent Ed. HasWell to lay about
quarter Of a mile of pipe, from the
creek up to the railroad station at
Guinda, for the first test Of the pumps
capacity, but as President Mills and q
party of friends We're to arrive on the
morning train to witness the pump
test, there was not time to joint all
of the pipe, hence the test was limited
to pumping to the point first mentioned.
The party Of visitors was composed
of William H Mills, Land Agent Of the
Capay Company; ]. A. Fflcher, Man
ager of the State Board of Trade; Cen
eral n. P. Chapman, Supreme Court
Commissioner: James H. Bridge, ed
itor of the Overland Monthly; G. w.
Price, representative of the Krogh
Pump Works; Ed. Rogers, civil en-
gineer; Raleigh Barcar, editor of the
Nacaville Reporter; f. z. Leake Of
the Woodland Democrat and Com
missioner of Public Works; Frank H.
Owens, editor of the Winters FIX
press; w. II. Gregory, a prominent
citizen of Winters: a. 3. Brown Of
San Francisco; W. NJ. Coward, the
San Francisco real estate dealer; a. z.
Ford, Cashier of the Capay Valley
Land Company: w. F. Perkins, Secre-
tary to w. H. Mills: Record
representative and several others.
A Hercules gasoline engine Of fifteen
horsepower was employed to operate
the pump, being a part of the outfit
contained on the wagon-bed The sue
tion-pipe was dropped into the creek
some % feet below where the pump
stood, and in two minutes from the time
the engine was started a full head Of
water eight inches in diameter was
pouring from the end of the pipe, near
~ thirty feet higher than the pump.
The test was made on the land Of
]. c.. Woodbury., who has a magnificent
orchard extending from the village Of
Guinda down to Cache Greek. The
pump was kept in operation about an
hour, or up to the time the visitors
We're obliged to leave on the return
train, and the test was in every way
satisfactory to the parties interested.
1t demonstrated the fact that the
pump can be hauled to the source CT
supply, a quarter Of mile of pipe laid
and a heavy volume of water turned
upon the land, all in the space of a few
hours.
The cost of a plant of this kind is
only about So, 200, and the pumps can
be operated, once the pipe is laid, by
one man, with another to look after the
handling Of the water at the point OF
delivery. The estimated cost of gaSo-
line for a run of ten hours is from 81
to 81 %.
Cost of engine. 81, UOU
Cost of pump ................. 3OO
cost or wagon ............... 1uo
Cost of fixtures flexible hose, etc.) 100
Cost of pipe (about 1000 feeD... 400
Total cost of plant. 81, 10
When at its maximum speed the en-
CINE makes 260 revolutions per min
ute and the pump $50. It's maximum ca
pacity is $4,000 gallons per hour with a
lift of 80 feet, and 10000 gallons per
hour with lift of 40 from the surface
of the water.
The estimated capacity for irrigation
is twenty acres in twelve hours. With
the trees being planted twenty feet
apart and allowing go gallons of water
to each tree $4,000 gallons per hour
would irrigate 16S trees per hour In
a day of twelve hours 2.016 trees, equal
to the number growing on twenty
acres, would be irrigated. This would
give to a space of ten feet square be-
tween the trees, having the same num-
Der of squares as trees, four inches of
water.
These claimed results are, of course,
theoritical, but that is a matter merely
of mathematical calculation, and The
actual results should not differ there
from.
Therefore, assuming these calculations
to be correct. and they are surely safe,
each tree on twenty acres of land would
in two days receive 400 gallons of
water. In one week the trees on sixty
acres would receive the same proper
tionate quantity, or 240 acres in one
month.
But the capacity of the plant can be
doubled by running a double shift, which
would irrigate $50 acres, per month, or
1000 acres in two months. By starting
the pumping plant on the first OF
March, it would be capable of irrlSatlnS
Ayers
% EeAnngs MnNEND0.