. . .There the lands have been laid out with as much care and precision as the architect would lay out the stones in a building and the mason would place them. Irrigation is conducted in some Kern river districts with the greatest ease, scarcely requiring the use of the shovel. The lands are so laid off with the check levels that by simply opening gates in the proper order, as the irrigation superintendents know how, the waters flow out and cover the successive plats or "checks" in their order, without leaving any standing water, and finally flowing off without material waste. This is the perfection of irrigation by the broad or submerging system,—a method wherein the slope of the ground is first ascertained, platted by contours, and the checks to hold the water, constructed with scrapers, are then run out on slight grade contours—not perfectly level, but on very gentle slopes.

There is no portion of the far southern part of the State where the check meth. . . Read More