. Better fruit. Fruit-culture. Figure 13—HEAD FLUME WITH OPENINGS TO SUPPLY WATER TO FURROWS Figure 11—SECTION OF CEMENT HEAD FLUME cubic feet per second, water enough at the rate of a second foot per 160 acres to supply 96,000 acres of land, or nearly twice as much as was watered by the Sunnyside canal in 1910. With water rights valued at $100 per acre, which is materially less than many have been sold for in different parts of the state, this water would be worth $9,600,000. This amount of land in its raw state, with water right, would at present prices be worth $20,000,000 to $35,000,000. T
. Better fruit. Fruit-culture. Figure 13—HEAD FLUME WITH OPENINGS TO SUPPLY WATER TO FURROWS Figure 11—SECTION OF CEMENT HEAD FLUME cubic feet per second, water enough at the rate of a second foot per 160 acres to supply 96,000 acres of land, or nearly twice as much as was watered by the Sunnyside canal in 1910. With water rights valued at $100 per acre, which is materially less than many have been sold for in different parts of the state, this water would be worth $9,600,000. This amount of land in its raw state, with water right, would at present prices be worth $20,000,000 to $35,000,000. The foregoing is illustrative of conditions in many parts of the state, and should be sufficient argument in favor of better construction, which will be necessary before the most efficient use of our water supply can be realized. At the time most of the canals of this valley were built no better construction, as a rule, was possible or justified by existing conditions. The prime object was to get water on the land. So long as there was an abundance in the stream a loss of fifty per cent or more by seep- age from the ditches was a matter of small concern, and to have considered structures of masonry or concrete, or lining canals with cement at $10 per bar- rel would have been ridiculous. The history of this valley has been repeated in most of the other districts, and the pioneers in canal building and irrigation did well and deserve great credit for what they did. But conditions now are not what they were twenty-five years ago, or even five years ago. The gen- eral development in this and other of our irrigated districts has been marvelously rapid—almost beyond our power to realize. The old leaky and temporary wooden flumes and other structures have served their purpose, and have about had their day. We are now, I believe, in the begin- ning of a new epoch in irrigation devel- opment, one in which the methods and practices of the earlier days will have little part. We are r
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