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 ::ndro Irricv.: .ic -let
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN 
 
 I
 
 ALESSANDRO 
 IRRIGATION DISTRICT, 
 
 California : 
 
 Its Physical, Engineering and 
 Business Problems ^ Conditions, 
 
 WM. HAM. HALL. 
 
 Its Legal Status, 
 
 WILSON & WILSON, 
 
 BACON & COMPANY, SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 Printers. October, 1891.
 
 ALESSANDRO 
 IRRIGATION DISTRICT, 
 
 California : 
 
 Its Physical, Engineering and 
 Business Problems ^ Conditions, 
 
 WM. HAM. HALL. 
 
 Its Legal Status, 
 
 WILSON & WILSON. 
 
 BACON & COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO, 
 
 Printers. October, 1891.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 With the multiplication of Irrigation Districts in California, 
 all equally authorized by law to issue and sell bonds, came the 
 necessity at financial centers for definite and authentic infor- 
 mation, well arranged and presented, concerning each. The 
 bankers of San Francisco, to whose judgment and opinion con- 
 stant appeal was being made by contemplating bond purchasers 
 and financial agents abroad, and who were daily being applied 
 to for information about these districts and their securities, 
 could not take the time, or incur the expense for, or assume 
 the entire responsibility of, the examinations needed to get at 
 the facts on which to base their judgments, or from which to- 
 enlighten their correspondents. 
 
 This condition of affairs was proving a serious drawback to 
 \ placing the district securities. It had to be remedied. A 
 \ number of representative Irrigationists came to San Francisco, 
 = and the subjoined correspondence was the practical result of 
 5 many meetings and interviews with representative bankers. 
 
 The engineer's reports and the attorneys ' opinion consequent 
 \ upon this action are designed for the information of financial 
 | agents and contemplating investors in the securities of districts, 
 and have not been sought as promotion papers in the interests 
 of districts. Necessarily, some district enterprises are good 
 from the business and engineering standpoint, and will be so 
 spoken of. It may be that some are bad, and, if so, it is ex- 
 pected they will be thus reported. 
 
 J. W. NANCE, 
 President State Association of Irrigation Districts. 
 
 298958
 
 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH LEADING FINANCIERS 
 OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 PALACE HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, 
 
 June 12, 1891. 
 THOMAS BROWN, ESQ., 
 IGNATZ STEINHART, ESQ., 
 LLOYD TEVIS, ESQ., 
 A. MONTPELLIER, ESQ., 
 R. C. WOOLWORTH, ESQ., 
 And others. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : 
 
 In their endeavors to establish credit before the financial 
 world, the Irrigation District authorities in this State have 
 come to realize the necessity for having the several district 
 schemes and organizations reported upon by experts whose 
 qualifications and good standing would be vouched for by those 
 persons controlling financial matters in San Francisco the 
 recognized center of business and money for California. 
 
 Each district has had its engineers and its attorneys, in 
 whom the respective district authorities have all due confi- 
 dence ; but the districts are many, and the experts of engineer- 
 ing who have participated in the work are several for each 
 district. 
 
 The advisability of centering upon some one engineer to re- 
 view the labors of the many heretofore engaged, for the in- 
 formation of the financial public, suggested by yourselves to 
 several district representatives a short while ago, has been 
 brought home to the district authorities. Speaking for many 
 with whom I have communicated, they generally see it, and ap- 
 prove of it.
 
 Correspondence. 5 
 
 Now, in order to expedite matters, and to be able to suggest 
 to the several District Boards some definite line of action, and 
 lay before them the name of an engineer whom you and other 
 controllers of local financial sentiment will recognize as of good 
 professional and personal standing, I, as President of the As- 
 sociation of Irrigation Districts, profiting by the personal inter- 
 views had with you by representatives of our districts, address 
 you the following inquiry : 
 
 In case the respective Boards of Directors of Irrigation Dis- 
 tricts in this State employ Mr. Wm. Ham. Hall, consulting 
 engineer, to report on the questions of water supply, plans and 
 estimates for works, suitability of lands, and generally the 
 physical, engineering and business questions involved in each 
 district scheme, giving him all desired latitude for thorough- 
 ness of work, will you thereafter, when in the course of busi- 
 ness you are applied to for information concerning the standing 
 of such district, reply that its affairs have been examined by an 
 engineer competent, in your opinion, for the task, and familiar 
 with the subject in this State, and a man whom you believe to 
 be trustworthy for the service ; in other words, that, in your 
 opinion, he is an engineer on whose reports careful investors 
 may rely as much as on those of any engineer in this line of 
 business ? 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 President State Association of Irrigation Districts. 
 
 ToJ. W. NANCE, ESQ., 
 
 President State Association Irrigation Districts. 
 SIR: 
 
 We have read your foregoing letter of June 12, 1891, and we 
 hereby answer in the affirmative relative to the inquiries re- 
 specting Mr. Hall.
 
 6 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 In this connection we would suggest that it might be well 
 for your Association to employ some competent attorney to in- 
 vestigate the status of the several districts, and assist Mr. Hall 
 in his work. 
 
 Respectfully yours,
 
 Correspondence, 
 
 NOTE. As will be seen, the above represent personal signatures. The 
 gentlemen were addressed individually, and not as presidents and man- 
 agers of banks ; and so, in replying, they signed for themselves and not 
 for the banks. But in order that the value of this certificate may be 
 known to those persons not familiar with San Francisco banking organ- 
 ization, the following memorandum of identification is appended ; 
 
 MR. THOMAS BROWN is Cashier and Manager of the Bank of California. 
 
 MR. LI.OYD TEVIS is President and Manager of the Bank of Wells, 
 Fargo & Co. 
 
 MR. IGNATZ STEINHART is the Manager of the Anglo-Californian 
 Bank. 
 
 MR. A. MONTPELUER is Cashier and Manager of the Grangers' Bank 
 of California. 
 
 MR. R. C. WOOI,\VORTH is President and Manager of the Crocker- 
 Woolworth Bank. 
 
 MR. I. W. HEI^MAN is President and Manager of the Nevada Bank 
 of California. 
 
 MR. ROBERT J. TOBIN is Secretary and Manager of the Hibernia Sav- 
 ings and Loan Society. 
 
 MR. L. GoTTiG is President and Manager of the German Savings and 
 Loan Society. 
 
 MR. JAMES G. FAIR is President of the Mutual Savings Bank.
 
 8 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 MR. S. P. YOUNG is Secretary and Manager of the California Safe 
 Deposit and Trust Co. 
 
 MR. ALBERT MILLER is President and Manager of the San Francisco 
 Savings Union. 
 
 MR. DANIEL MEYER is an individual Banker, and extensive Dealer in 
 Securities.
 
 Letter of Transmitted. 
 
 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Oct. ist, 1891. 
 MR. J. W. NANCE, 
 
 President State Association, Irrigation Districts, 
 
 SIR: 
 
 In compliance with your request, and by authority of a reso- 
 lution passed by the Board of Directors of the Alessandro 
 Irrigation District on August 4th, last past, I herewith submit 
 to you a report ' ' on the questions of water-supply, plans and 
 estimates for works, suitability of lands for irrigation, and 
 generally the engineering and business questions involved in 
 the construction of the works ' ' for the Allesandro Irrigation 
 District, in this State. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 WM. HAM. HAIvL, 
 
 Consulting Civil Engineer^
 
 Ales-andro Irrigation Dtstrut. 
 
 CONTENTS OF ENGINEER'S REPORT. 
 
 DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 1. Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 2. Adaptability to Irrigation. 
 
 3. Necessity for Irrigation. 
 
 4. Water Supply. 
 
 5. Water Duty and Delivery. 
 
 6. Works and Cots. 
 
 7. District Valuation. 
 
 8. BondeH Indebtedness. 
 
 9. Present Financial Condition. 
 
 10. Future Financial Outlook. 
 
 11. Additional Bond Issue. 
 
 12. Right-of-Way Matters. 
 
 13. Contracts and Contract Rates. 
 
 14. Cost of this Irrigation. 
 
 15. Character of this Work. 
 
 16. Condition of the Work. 
 
 17. Probable Irrigation Effect. 
 
 18. Litigation and Local Sentiment. 
 
 19. Conclusion. 
 
 LIST OF EXHIBITS. 
 
 I. Cost Statement B. V. I. Co. Work (Eng'r in Chg.) 
 
 II. Bond Redemption Illustration. 
 
 III. Financial Statement (Treasurer). 
 
 IV. Assessment and Tax Statement (Assessor). 
 
 V. Bond Issue and Interest Statement (Secretary). 
 
 MATTER APPENDED. 
 
 A. Notes to the Report. 
 
 B. Water-Right Agreement and Certificate. 
 
 C. Closing Letter Other District Enterprises.
 
 Engineer's Jteport. 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 ALESSANDRO IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 
 
 Irrigation in Southern California was begun by the Spanish 
 Mission priests in the early part of the present century, and 
 through the labor of their Indian converts or disciples. The 
 Roman Catholic Church in the Mexican province of California 
 was shorn of temporal power in 1833 ; its cultivated lands were 
 taken from it, and afterwards granted to political and military 
 favorites. These lands were notably the irrigated orchards, 
 vineyards and fields at the mission stations of San Fernando, 
 San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Juan Capristano, San Jacin- 
 to, San Diego, and perhaps several others. One city had been 
 founded also on the basis of irrigation industry, the Pueblo 
 of Los Angeles, in 1781. Here the irrigation waters were 
 made community property from the start, and lands were ap- 
 portioned to the settlers. 
 
 The means for construction at command of these early ir- 
 rigators were, of course, crude and narrowly limited. Their 
 irrigation experience was equally restricted and methods nec- 
 essarily primitive. Their lack of knowledge of the soils and 
 climate too placed them at great disadvantage. Nature seemed 
 to say that the low-lying lands in the valleys were the best, 
 for these maintained a verdure, an herbage for the support of 
 stock, timber affording shade and yielding firewood. The high- 
 er lauds in the valleys, and generally the lands in the higher 
 valleys (not those in the hills or mountains), on the contrary, 
 were desert- like ; they produced only thorny cacti, sticky grease- 
 wood andjjw<fo santa, white sage and black sage, occasionally 
 bunch grass. Cattle could live, to be sure, on these dry plains 
 and bench lands that is, a few cattle to the square mile, 
 but the rolling lands and hills and the small valleys between 
 these were the real grazing grounds.
 
 i 2 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 The low lands of the large valleys were moistened by natural 
 irrigation from springs and streams. But they were very often 
 "low" only by comparison with other lands, or as respected 
 the local water-supply. In actual elevation above the sea, the 
 so-called "low lands" were frequently high, when compared 
 to lands which themselves were high as regards ground moist- 
 ure, water-supply and command of irrigation as it then was, 
 in neighboring localities. 
 
 Now, aside from commonplace explanations of this state- 
 ment, Southern California affords a number of familiar exam- 
 ples which in other countries would not be commonplace. The 
 location of streams and water-supplies in this country is not 
 governed by all the rules that control elsewhere. That is to 
 say, streams burst forth in seemingly unnatural places, as on 
 wide open plains, high up on hillsides, or on the top of hills, 
 or at the top edges of table lands, instead of in relatively low 
 places, topographically, and at the base of slopes or in main 
 canons, as is generally the case in other countries. 
 
 The low lands, then, in Southern California were the natu- 
 rally moist lands, and those easiest irrigated from springs and 
 streams. The old Mexican population thought these were the 
 best. The Mormons, who came into San Bernardino early in 
 the " fifties," and were the representatives of the next stage of 
 local irrigation development, also thought so. The early Amer- 
 ican settlers took up with this opinion, and it became difficult 
 to dislodge. 
 
 Matters ran on thus until about 1870, when some speculators 
 in colony enterprise took the notion that the higher lands were 
 good better than those locally low and moist, or easily irrigat- 
 ed. At any rate they were very cheap, and some of them could 
 be irrigated by building better and more expensive irrigation 
 works. Then followed the beginning, at Pasadena and at Riv- 
 erside, of the systematic development, by irrigation on a large 
 scale, of the mesa, or high plain lands, whose products now 
 place Southern California in the front rank of horticultural 
 regions. 
 
 The development has been one of works and one of culture
 
 Engineer's Report. 13 
 
 methods. Its succeeding notable steps have each been higher 
 in class of works ; followed by higher, more perfect, culture 
 methods ; and each has chosen higher and dryer lands, relative- 
 ly, for its field, 
 
 The San Jacinto plain, lying partly, each, in San Diego and 
 San Bernardino counties, is one of the latest scenes of this 
 march in horticultural progress. The Alessandro Irrigation 
 District occupies one end of this plain about its highest lands. 
 The works which are to supply it are of the highest class yet 
 attempted for extended irrigation. Presumably, the culture 
 methods to be employed will be profited by the experiences 
 which have preceded it in this fruitful and progressive South- 
 ern California region. 
 
 ' ' The valley of the San Jacinto consists of an extensive plain, 
 'one thousand four hundred to one thousand eight hundred 
 ' feet above the sea, covering some two hundred thousand 
 ' acres, wonderfully uniform in surface, of gray and reddish 
 ' soil, nearly surrounded by mountains, and dotted by irregu- 
 ' lar conical hills and bald tables of granite, standing alone 
 ' like islands in the sea. From a rim of this plateau one may 
 ' look north and northwest down upon the Riverside plain and 
 ' the San Bernardino Valley. To the northeast, east and 
 1 southeast, the peaks, spurs, and outlying ridges that form the 
 ' San Jacinto system of mountains, whose highest peak is 
 ' eleven thousand feet in altitude, interpose a lofty barrier be- 
 ' tweeii the valley and the Colorado desert. To the south lies 
 ' Smith's Mountain, a high east-and-west ridge. To the west 
 ' and southwest are the low Temescal and Pinacarte Moun- 
 ' tains." (Report of the State Irrigation Engineer, California ; 
 Part II, Irrigation in Southern California, pp. 47-48.) 
 
 The northern end of the San Jacinto plain, sloping from 1800 
 to 1450 feet above the sea, is in an almost complete amphithe- 
 atre of hills. These rise six or seven hundred feet above its 
 higher edge, on the north, but at the western side sink to a mere 
 rolling-land appearance, as viewed from the plain itself. 
 
 The Alessandro Irrigation District occupies the plain and 
 sloping lands in this comparatively elevated plateau. It is 
 twelve miles in length frcm east to west, and seven miles wide 
 on north and south lines, and contains about 25, 500 acres, or 
 v ery nearly 40 square miles.
 
 14 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 The boundaries follow section and quarter-section lines 
 around the available and desirable lands, without strict regard 
 to grade contours for the irrigation water-supply is brought 
 to and through it under pressure, and irregularities of eleva- 
 tion are thus, in water delivery, practically eliminated. 
 
 This district lies across the northern end of the Ferris Dis- 
 trict, heretofore reported upon, and easterly therefrom, and is 
 wholly in San Bernardino County, as will be seen by the gen- 
 eral map. 
 
 Riverside, one of the very foremost horticultural neighbor- 
 hoods in America, lies west of Alessandro, on a lower plain, 
 and at the western foot of the intervening hill range, from two 
 to six miles distant. 
 
 Redlands, another famous horticultural development of the 
 region, is on a somewhat similar mesa plain sloping northward, 
 at about the elevation of the middle part of the Alessandro 
 tract, just over another range of hills, and six miles north from 
 the eastern part of the district. 
 
 Alessandro District is all upon one plain, sloping south to- 
 ward a basin whose immediate bottom is occupied by a great 
 rugged cluster of granite hills that is, the plain slopes from 
 the surrounding hills to the base of this interior group in the 
 San Jacinto Valley. 
 
 There is a low trough outlet on the west of the central hills, 
 which goes down through Ferris District to the San Jacinto 
 river, as described in a former report ; and another on the east 
 which leads to the basin of San Jacinto lake. 
 
 The Alessandro plain slopes at rates varying between 10 and 
 100 feet per mile. There are several outstanding granite hills 
 in it, covering altogether about 600 acres of area. 
 
 A petition for the formation of the Alessandro Irrigation 
 District was, as required by law, presented to the Board of 
 Supervisors of San Bernardino County, on December ist, 1890, 
 and, there being no objection, it was granted. The statutory
 
 Engineer's Report. 15 
 
 election was held on January 3rd, 1891, whereat the first Board 
 of Directors was chosen and the organization completed. The 
 area embraced was about 25,550 acres, and there have been no 
 changes of boundary or of acreage since. 
 
 Two maps are found herewith ; one, the larger scale, show- 
 ing the topography and land subdivisions and irrigation sys- 
 tem of works of the district itself; and another, the smaller 
 scale general map, showing the location and relation of the 
 district to the older and better known irrigation neighborhoods 
 of San Bernardino and San Diego counties, in its region. 
 
 The value of a security depends not only on the honesty of 
 the debtor and the firmness of his binding to the creditor, but 
 upon his ability to pay it when the time comes. This ability 
 will depend, in the case of irrigation districts, on the success of 
 irrigation industry in them. The bondholder will not want to 
 take the lands of taxpayers in a district, pledged to him under 
 the law, or to sell them for taxes to satisfy his claim, even if 
 they are worth more than sufficient in the real estate market. 
 He will want his interest and principal. He is as much con- 
 cerned from the beginning in the success of irrigation in a dis- 
 trict as its taxpayers are. 
 
 The success of irrigation, commercially, depends, in no 
 small degree, on the necessity for it, as well as on the suitabil- 
 ity of the site and climate. And the measure of this success 
 will be enhanced or modified for each district, by the degree of 
 adaptability of its conditions, compared to those of the various 
 districts being developed at the same time. The promotion of 
 an irrigation district is an enterprise governed by business prin- 
 ciples, just as much as a commercial venture on the part of 
 any individual. There is necessarily a rivalry between dis- 
 tricts in process of development at the same time. It cannot be 
 otherwise. Other things being equal, the district best adapted 
 to irrigation in soil and climate will succeed ; while if the mar- 
 ket for irrigated lands or for irrigation products is overstocked, 
 the poorest district will be first to fail. 
 
 Bondholders and investors abroad recognize these facts. 
 They want to know beforehand whether the case is one favora-
 
 1 6 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 ble to success. Hence, I take up the question of adaptability 
 to irrigation and necessity for it, in the case of Alessandro Dis- 
 trict. To 'those acquainted with the southern country, and 
 with these lands and with this neighborhood, it may seem 
 .absurd to go into such questions for this case. Be it remem- 
 bered by these, that a report of this character should be suffic- 
 iently full to meet every possible question, within its scope, 
 which can be raised by those who know practically nothing of 
 California or her industries. Irrigation district securities are 
 seeking a market in Switzerland, for instance. It is, there- 
 fore, in part the Swiss demand for information on the subject 
 that is to be met, rather than any local demand in California. 
 
 ADAPTABILITY TO IRRIGATION. 
 
 In my opinion, there are no equally large areas of land in 
 : Southern California materially better adapted, in surface and 
 soils, to cultivations of high class, and by irrigation methods 
 suited thereto and of the highest order, than some portions of 
 the San Jacinto plateau plain. 
 
 For warmth of exposure, good drainage slope and richness 
 of soil, a very large part of the Alessandro District ranks with 
 the best. In smoothness of surface, also, as a general thing, 
 these lands are favorable to economical preparation for irriga- 
 tion, and succeeding cultivation thereby. 
 
 As already quoted, the State Irrigation Engineer reported 
 the San Jacinto plateau valley as being ' ' wonderfully uniform 
 in surface"; and on another page of the report he wrote : 
 "Asa general thing, the soil of these valleys is excellent, and 
 for the most part is directly traceable to the disintegration of 
 granite." 
 
 This description is applicable, verbatim, to the lands of a 
 large part of Alessandro District. With the exception of about 
 600 acres embracing some outstanding granite knolls in 
 the plain, and 1,000 to 1,500 acres, somewhat cut by ravines 
 and drainage ways, found principally along the northern 
 edge of the district, and bordering the hills that lie behind 
 it, we do not find much more evenly unbroken and favorable 
 slopes for the class of irrigation here contemplated, than those 
 of this district.
 
 Engineers Report. 17 
 
 There is some knolly or " hog- wallow " land also, that re- 
 quires more expense in preparing for irrigation than the smooth- 
 est and most evenly surfaced plains ; but, on the whole, the 
 surface configuration of the district is all that could be expected 
 of so large an area of rich-soiled fruit land in Southern Califor- 
 nia. Lands of such soils and adaptabilities here, as a general 
 thing, are more cut up by ravines and washes, and decidedly 
 more rough and rugged of surface between these larger irreg- 
 ularities, than we find to be the case with those of Alessandro 
 District. [See Note i.] 
 
 Standing on lands at the western end of this district, one 
 looks immediately upon the plain, but two to five miles away, 
 and several hundred feet below, which more than all others, 
 perhaps, has made for Southern California its reputation as an 
 orange and lemon growing region, and has notably contributed, 
 also, to its record in the line of the olive, fig, and raisin indus- 
 tries. It is Riverside. 
 
 Just as in case of Ferris District, lying opposite the southern 
 end of the Riverside plain, so Alessandro District, lying oppo- 
 site the middle and northern part of Riverside, can claim to 
 have soils of almost identical origin and formation, and conse- 
 quent adaptabilities, with it. As Riverside surface soils were 
 in no small measure made by washings from the western face 
 of a low granite hill range, so the surface soils of Alessaudro 
 District find their origin in washes from the eastern face of the 
 same range, and southern slope of its north and east continua- 
 tion. As a matter of fact, the Alessandro mesa, on the eastern 
 slope, is so near the crest of the hill range whose western foot- 
 ing is in Riverside, that some natural canon drainage-ways 
 have cut through the hills from this eastern plateau, and wash- 
 ings from it have for ages been annually contributed direct to 
 the soils of the lower orange-growing plain. Alessandro soils, 
 then, have not only in great measure an origin in common with 
 those of Riverside, but are in some measure themselves the 
 origin of Riverside's fertility. 
 
 Of the Alessandro District, 14,000 to 15,000 acres have soils 
 practically of the "red mesa" kind. These cover the main
 
 1 8 Alessandro Irrigation District, 
 
 portion and the western end of the district. The slopes at the 
 eastern end, to the extent of 3,000 to 4,000 acres, are of rich, 
 fine-sandy loam, gray and light drab in color. The lower and 
 flatter lands towards the southern edge (and opposite the mid- 
 dle part of the district, rather than at the extreme east and 
 west ends,) are heavier and darker in soil, and in a limited de- 
 gree have an adobe nature for i,oooto 2,000 acres of area. 
 The balance of the acreage is made up, for the most part, of 
 various admixtures of these more distinctive soils, and in small 
 part of recent gray colored, coarse washings from the adjacent 
 granite hills. 
 
 The ' ' red mesa " soils, as a general rule, are less heavy and 
 distinctly marked in character, than are those of Riverside and 
 Redlands, but they are at least equally well adapted to hand- 
 ling under irrigation, and apparently as suitable to the most 
 desired horticultural growths. Large areas of these soils closely 
 resemble and are doubtless almost identical in composition with 
 the admixtures of recent granite wash with the mesa clay, found 
 along the eastern and higher parts of the Riverside plain, and 
 towards its southern end. 
 
 The rich, sandy loams of the eastern end of the district have 
 a local origin. They are on the southern footings of a hill 
 range, that has from its northern and eastern flanks sent a sim- 
 ilar alluvial detritus down to the neighborhood of Old San Ber- 
 nardino, where is another belt of specially productive country, 
 now much grown to fruits and vines, under irrigation. The 
 ruling kinds of soil in this Alessandro District, therefore, have 
 the ingredients of the distinct classes of fruit lands already well 
 proven at two of the best known neighborhoods in Southern 
 California. 
 
 The slopes of the Alessandro plain are, in my opinion, spe- 
 cially well adapted to cultivation in citrus fruits, and also to the 
 olive, fig, and vine. There may be some question of the ad- 
 aptability of the lower and flatter lands of the district, to the 
 extent of several thousand acres, to the growing of citrus fruit, 
 and some other of the less hardy varieties of other fruits. 
 There are always such differences in every locality. The 
 warmer, better drained slopes, locally, are always more desir-
 
 Engineer's Report. 19 
 
 able than flatter land at their footings, for the more delicate 
 growths. So far as soil composition and surface form is con- 
 cerned, about all of Alessandro District is good fruit land, but 
 some parts are better than others. 
 
 The soils are deep, rich, and of character to take water free- 
 ly, without being wastefully absorptive. There are no large 
 districts adapted to this class of production, materially more 
 free from waste land than the Alessandro. 
 
 NECESSITY FOR IRRIGATION. 
 
 Alessandro District is in the undisputed zone of irrigation in 
 Southern California. There are no differences of opinion as to 
 the necessity of artificial watering of all lands in this region, 
 except some small areas made moist by percolation from ad- 
 jacent streams and springs, and except lands in some higher 
 mountain valleys. And, moreover, the naturally moist lands 
 in Southern California are not suited to the growth of the high- 
 er horticultural products. 
 
 The orange, lemon, lime, olive, fig and vine, especially re- 
 fuse to thrive and bear well on moist lands. They soon be- 
 come diseased ; the crops are spoiled ; the plants are short 
 lived ; the fruit, never of fine quality. Some small areas in 
 high mountain valleys, or on elevated plateaus in this region, 
 produce good apples, pears and other hardy fruits, without ir- 
 rigation. But these localities are subjected to decidedly great- 
 er rainfall and cooler atmosphere, than those at elevations that 
 admit of citrus and other delicate fruit growing. 
 
 The citrus fruit belt of Southern California is above all others 
 the irrigation zone of that country. If we had to localize it, 
 narrowly but continuously, it might be described as a strip 
 from 5 to 10 miles in width ; following the southern and west- 
 ern footing of the Sierra Madre, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, 
 and San Diego Mountains, through I^os Angeles, San Bernar- 
 dino, and San Diego Counties ; and lying between 400 and 1500 
 feet above the sea at its western end ; between 500 and 2500, 
 in its middle course ; and from almost sea level to 1500 feet of 
 elevation at its southern extremity. 
 
 As a matter of fact, this belt does not include all the success-
 
 20 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 ful citrus growing neighborhoods in the great region through 
 which it sweeps ; but it embraces the largest and most success- 
 ful. Neither is it true that all neighborhoods in it are suitable 
 to this class of culture ; on the contrary, the really favorable 
 places are simply scattered in series through it. 
 
 The Alessandro District is just at the middle part of this belt 
 where it is farthest from the sea ; is subjected to the most 
 drying and hottest atmosphere, and receives almost its least 
 amount of rainfall. [See Xote 2.] 
 
 It is in the region where the irrigation ditch so frequently is 
 a demarkation between extreme apparent sterility and intense 
 and show}' productiveness. On good soils, irrigation here 
 maintains full populations in luxury, and with most pleasing 
 surroundings, in localities where man could not exist without 
 such artificial using of water in agriculture, or without help 
 from elsewhere. [See Note 4.] 
 
 Differing somewhat from lands of its neighbor, the Ferris Dis- 
 trict, there would, on account of soil conditions, be an absolute 
 necessity for irrigation on lands of the Alessandro District, quite 
 generally, even if subjected to a materially greater rainfall than 
 the region receives. The heavier, " red mesa" character which 
 the larger area of Alessandro lands presents, carries with it a 
 lower degree of absorptiveness and power to retain moisture. 
 A materially larger part of rainfall on the greater portion of 
 Alessandro lands is and always will be shed off as surface drain- 
 age. Soils of this character cannot be cultivated so as to receive 
 more than a comparatively limited quantity of water at one 
 time ; they do not become wet from rain or irrigation, to any 
 considerable depth. Ground waters under them are at great 
 depths below the surface. There is in the best lands of this 
 character always a body of almost dry earth between the sur- 
 face soil, wetted either naturally or artificially, and the sub- 
 soils dampened by moisture rising from ground-waters below. 
 It is this characteristic that renders them "warm," in the lan- 
 guage of the orchardist : keeps them particularly free from 
 frost ; and contributes largely to adapt them specially to citrus 
 fruit growing. But they absolutely require artificial waterings, 
 which must be applied regularly, oftener than on some more 
 absorptive soils, in less volumes at one time, and through a 
 longer season of irrigation.
 
 Engineer's Report. 21 
 
 This character being attributed in a medium but not extreme 
 degree to a larger part of Alessandro lands, we have here a 
 necessity for irrigation, born both of rain deficiency and spe- 
 cial soil requirement. It is the result of scant rainfall, of its 
 presentation all in a few months of each year, of the excessive 
 dryness of the atmosphere throughout the growing months for 
 vegetation, of the positive insufficiency of water in, and inabil- 
 ity of the soil to receive sufficient to supply an exhausting veg- 
 etation for longer than a few weeks at a time. 
 
 To the thoughtful and intelligent student of agriculture, to 
 the expert in irrigation, or to the practical irrigator, there could, 
 on these accounts, be no doubt of the necessity for and value 
 of irrigation in the Alessandro District, even though experience 
 had not already actually proven these points there. 
 
 WATER SUPPLY. 
 
 The Alessandro District, in matter of water supply, is a cus- 
 tomer of the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, one of the larg- 
 est and most powerful water-supplying companies, in respect 
 to financial and water resources, of Southern California. This 
 company's water-right and reservoir privileges cover a wide 
 field in San Bernardino and San Diego counties. It has exten- 
 sive works already constructed, others in course of building, 
 and still others in contemplation and planning. 
 
 The question of water supply for the district, then, is one of 
 ability and good faith on the part of the B. V. I. Co. to fulfill 
 its agreement ; and that involves a consideration of the com- 
 pany's rights, privileges and abilities, and of its other engage- 
 ments, and programme for future development and operations. 
 
 This water-supplying company is one of notable resources 
 and successes. But that it is going to be entirely capable of 
 meeting all its water engagements is an affirmative opinion of 
 great responsibility. These engagements,, however, are graded 
 as to priority. And so, the writer of this report has considered 
 the subject as one of water-supply and delivery book-keeping, 
 in order that an opinion for the purposes of this special report 
 might be arrived at. 
 
 The district holds its water privileges under an agreement
 
 22 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 with the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, dated May 6th, 1891. 
 By this engagement, the company has become a contractor to de- 
 liver at various commanding points in the district a supply of 
 water sufficient for its irrigation, at the rate of one inch of flow 
 to each four acres of land. This is a larger water right than al- 
 most an>* other irrigation neighborhood in Southern California 
 has. The usual measure of such rights ranges between an 
 inch to five, and an inch to ten acres. One to five is consid- 
 ered a first-rate right for any kind of cultivation, where deliv- 
 ery and distribution works are of high class, and cultivation 
 and irrigation methods are not primitive and wasteful, and 
 lands not specially absorptive. [See Notes 7 and 8.] 
 
 The Alessandro works are most economical in delivery and 
 distribution ; the lands are nowhere specially absorptive in 
 character, and for the most part are rather the reverse (or 
 will be when once wetted) ; crop cultivation in the dis- 
 trict is not at all likely to be (in other than small proportion, 
 only) of character such as to conduce to wasteful methods or 
 habits in irrigation ; the class of irrigators is almost certain to 
 be specially intelligent, thrifty, and careful not to over-irrigate. 
 Hence, I am of the opinion that the B. V. I. Co. water certifi- 
 cates call for all the water which this district can, in any rea- 
 son, require for the highest and most remunerative class of 
 irrigation practiced in this country. 
 
 The water rights sold by the Bear Valley Irrigation Com- 
 pany are represented by certificates which have something the 
 character of special water-stock share.?. There have been two 
 general issues of these, Classes " A " and " B," respectively. 
 Those received by the Alessandro District, under the contract 
 aforesaid, are of Class B. They call for a supply cf one-eighth 
 of an inch to each certificate, and the district has acquired 51,- 
 ooo such certificates, or two to each of its 25,500 acres. The 
 maximum rate of deliver}' is fixed at the figure just stated, and 
 the total amount to be furnished in any year, under any one 
 certificate, is one acre-foot, or 43,560 cubic feet of water. 
 
 The water-supply contract and the text of the water-right 
 certificates are annexed in full to this report, and hence it is 
 unnecessary to review details of the subject under the present 
 heading. The originals plainly, and in good order, set forth 
 all significant conditions of the service.
 
 Engineers Report. 23 
 
 This seems to have been the only way that a supply of water 
 could have been had for this body of land, within moderate 
 means. Conditions are such in the special region, that water- 
 supply projects require great capital and adroit management. 
 No single irrigation district could secure capital sufficient to 
 carry out such a project as the B. V. I. Co. has carried out and 
 is perfecting here. Public corporations, with popularly elected 
 officers, are in their nature incapable of that thorough and elas- 
 tic business management necessary for success in such enter- 
 prises under conditions of the kind which govern in this State. 
 
 For the purpose of this report, I have made an examination 
 and study of the present and probable future water-supplying 
 ability of the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, of their engage- 
 ments to furnish water, and their program or scheme of works, 
 etc., to fulfill these engagements. And I am of the opinion 
 that this company can and will fulfill its contract now existing, 
 to supply the Alessandro Irrigation District, and in accordance 
 with the terms of the water certificates issued to the district 
 under that contract. 
 
 This subject might be treated more at length, and the mere 
 opinion be substantiated by demonstration, but such treatment 
 would very much lengthen this report, and make it less read- 
 able. In a special paper on the water-supplying capabilities, 
 at large, of the B. V. I. Co., now in course of preparation by 
 the writer hereof, the complete review will be presented. The 
 foregoing opinion should be regarded as quite full and decided 
 enough for all purposes of this particular district enterprise, so 
 far as the water-supply question affects it. 
 
 WATER DUTY AND DELIVERY. 
 
 In the preceding article I have expressed the opinion that 
 this district had secured an ample water supply, by its purchase 
 from the B. V. I. Co. of two Class B water-right certificates 
 for each acre of district area. 
 
 Certificates of this class limit the total quantity of water
 
 24 Alessandro Irrigation Dtstria. 
 
 furnished per year to one foot in depth, and the rate of deliv- 
 ery to an inch of flow to eight acres. The Alessandro District, 
 having two certificates to the acre, is entitled to receive twice 
 this depth of service, and at double the above rate of delivery. 
 
 The maximum service, then, would be at the rate of about .3 
 foot in 30 days. This, as a maximum monthly demand, is about 
 15 per cent of the annual volume. Now, experience has shown 
 that the greatest monthly demand, where the supply is at the 
 rate of one inch to five acres on fully developed irrigation of 
 this class, is at the rate of 18 per cent of the total annual con- 
 sumption. Hence, it may be seen at a glance that the duty 
 allowed for in Alessandro District is quite sufficient. 
 
 The rate of delivery and commencement of use of water in 
 succeeding years, under the contract, is, in terms of maximum 
 service, as follows : 
 
 Time of Commencement. No. of Certificates. No. of Acres. No. of Inches. 
 
 June ist 1891 
 
 4OOO 
 
 2,000 
 
 CQO 
 
 
 , \J\J\J 
 
 
 O'-"-' 
 
 April ist, 1892 
 
 6,006 
 
 3,000 
 
 750 
 
 " ist, 1893. ...- 
 
 6,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 750 
 
 " ist, 1894 
 
 6,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 750 
 
 " ist, 1895 
 
 6,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 750 
 
 " ist, 1896 
 
 6,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 750 
 
 " ist, 1897 
 
 6,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 75 
 
 " ist, 1898 
 
 6,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 750 
 
 " ist, 1899 
 
 5,000 
 
 2,500 
 
 625 
 
 51,000 25,500 6,375 
 
 WORKS AND COSTS. 
 
 The case of Alessandro District is different in an important 
 respect from that of other districts heretofore reported upon. 
 Its water supply, delivery, and, for the greater portion of its 
 area, its distribution works also, are built virtually by contract 
 at a prefixed price, and for the amount of bonds already voted. 
 So, for one important purpose of this report, it does not much 
 matter what the actual cost of construction of works may be ; 
 for the district is bonded to the extent of $30 per acre no 
 more and no less.
 
 Engineer's Report. 25 
 
 But although the full extent of district indebtedness is thus 
 determined from the start, the question of value of works still 
 remains of interest as a factor, both directly and indirectly, in 
 the value of the security offered for the bonded debt, even 
 though prefixed and limited as above. 
 
 To well understand the situation as to works and cost of 
 works for the irrigation development of Alessandro District, it 
 is necessary to know something of the history of the enterprise. 
 The Bear Valley L,and and Water Company was incorporated 
 in 1883, with a capital stock of $360,000, divided into 3600 
 shares. It was a water-suppljdng company, and built and owned 
 the Bear Valley dam and reservoir, and other works. 
 
 In July, 1890, the Bear Valley and Alessandro Development 
 Company was formed, with a capital stock of $400,000, and 
 with the objects, in general terms, of (i) acquiring control of 
 the B. V. I/ & W. Company, (2) buying lands suitable for irri- 
 gation, (3) delivering and distributing Bear Valley water to 
 them, and (4) selling them, thus improved, at a profit. 
 
 A tract of about 2 1 ,000 acres, now within the Alessandro dis- 
 trict, was purchased, and 2000 of the 3600 shares of the B. V. 
 I/. & W. Co. stock was secured. The construction of a main 
 conduit was commenced, to deliver waters from the Santa Ana 
 river to the land bought, which was called the Alessandro tract. 
 The plan was to fully deliver and distribute water to these lands, 
 and sell them in small tracts, for enough to pay a profit oncost 
 of land and the water service, and with contracts to pay a year- 
 ly water rental that would thereafter yield a revenue to the 
 company. 
 
 In November, 1 890, the Bear Valley Irrigation Company was 
 organized, with a capital stock of $4,000,000, and it took all 
 the rights, privileges, works, lands and contracts of both the 
 B. V. L. & \V. Co. and the B. V. & A. D. Co. The latter 
 company took stock of the new company for its properties, and 
 now holds a controlling interest in it. The new company was 
 organized to carry on the business of both companies which 
 had preceded it, and has continued to do so. 
 
 In December, 1890, and January, 1891, the Alessandro Irri
 
 26 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 gation district, embracing the 21,000- acre Alessandro tract of 
 the B. V. I. Co. , and about 4500 acres of other owners, was 
 formed ; and under the subsequent agreement for water-rights 
 hereinbefore explained, the B. V. I. Co. became a contractor 
 to deliver water to and upon the district along certain main 
 lines of supply. This agreement was, of course, for the en- 
 tire district, and involved the construction by the B. V. I. Co. 
 of all necessary main works. 
 
 The Board of Directors of the district in June (1891) adopted 
 a resolution to the effect that ' ' the owner of every ten-acre lot 
 ' ' in the Alessandro Irrigation District, before taking water on 
 ( ' said lot, must first pay his exact pro rata of the expense of 
 ' ' piping, or conveying in brick flumes, the water from the Bear 
 " Valley Irrigation Company's pipe lines or canal, to the high- 
 ' ' est comer of said lot. Said pipe line or brick flume to become 
 ' ' the property of the Alessandro Irrigation District, and to be 
 " thereafter maintained by said district." 
 
 Meanwhile, the B. V. I. Co. and its predecessor, the B. V. 
 & A. D. Co., had been dividing its 2i,ooo-acre tract, putting 
 in distribution works for, and selling it in lots of 10 acres each. 
 In making the.<!e sales the company contracted to construct 
 works and lay pipe lines to deliver water, at the rate of one 
 inch to four acres, at the highest point of the (lo-acre) tract 
 sold, in each case, and the first payments 011 these sales were 
 not due until such works had been constructed. The building 
 of these distributaries has, since commencement in the early 
 part of the present year, been continuously pressed forward, 
 until now the greater part of the 2i,ooo-acre tract of the B. V. 
 I. Co. is subdivided, and pipe service provided for a large 
 portion of it. 
 
 These distribution works are of the very best class for the 
 purpose. The B. V. I. Co. receives its return for them in its 
 land sales. Other land owners than those buying from this 
 company have to pay their share of dost of such works as will 
 serve their lands, or put in an independent distribution system 
 for themselves. In any event, in order to subdivide and sell 
 lands to advantage, all the works must come up to the stand- 
 ard now set. And, finally, as a matter of fact, there is har- 
 mony amongst the owners of lands in the district, and distri- 
 bution construction is going forward.
 
 Engineer's Report. 27 
 
 Hence as all the distributaries become the property of the 
 district, and all the main works remain the property of the B. 
 V. I. Co., with right of use thereof for delivery purposes con- 
 tracted to the district the cost of district works and waters 
 will be limited to the $30 per acre alreadj^ contracted and paid, 
 and the district will have the use of all essential works (under 
 its contract for water-delivery) of a high order. 
 
 The water-supply for Alessandro District, as well as that, 
 thus far, for all customers of the B. V. I. Co. on the plains of 
 San Jacinto, comes by a steel pipe, 10 miles in length, from 
 Santa Ana river and Mill creek above Redlands, and through 
 a tunnel in the intervening dividing ridge, to a point just above 
 the northern corner of the Alessandro District, as shown on the 
 maps. Thence it is conducted in concrete lined canals, on 
 grade so as to command the slopes below. Main pipe lines (of 
 steel, where under pressure, and of vitrified earthen-ware, 
 where not under pressure) serve for sub-delivery through the 
 tract, on routes governed by the topography and location of 
 demand. From these, distribution is made on every (almost) 
 quarter-mile line, down the slope from north to south, so as to 
 serve each lo-acre tract at its highest corner. These distribu- 
 taries are, for the most part, of iron-stone vitrified clay pipe, 
 laid with cement joints, but some cement pipe has been used. 
 The sizes of distributaries range from 6 to 14 inches in dia- 
 meter, and of main pipe from 12 to 24 inches. 
 
 West of the tunnel, the B. V. I. Co. has thus far expended : 
 
 On Main (Company) Works $100,651 62 
 
 On Distribution (District) Works 80,026 30 
 
 Total $180,677 9 2 
 
 To this amount a sum equal to about five per cent is to be 
 added for engineering and surveying for works. [See Exhibit 
 
 I-] 
 
 The cost of the distribution system for 4200 acr< s, of which 
 account was kept, including all engineering and other contin- 
 gent expense, was $76,251.94, or $18.15 per acre thus pre- 
 pared to be served. 
 
 Distribution to each irrigator is made by " well outlets " of
 
 28 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 i4-inch vitrified pipe, in which the water is caused to rise and 
 overflow through a weir lip into a surface irrigating flume. An 
 iron sliding gate, with its frame and seat specially cemented 
 into the well piece, is actuated to shut off the onward flow of 
 water in the pipe below, thus causing as much as desired to 
 rise in the well and flow over the weir. 
 
 I have viewed these works in construction, have looked into 
 the plans, and am of the opinion that the system as a whole is 
 well designed, and will be efficient to the end desired. In mat- 
 ter of cost, as already explained, it does not directly affect the 
 district or its securities. [See Note 10.] 
 
 Efficiency and completeness insured, as I believe is done in 
 this case, it matters not, so far as the district is concerned, 
 whether the cultivator has had to pay, in buying his land, $18 
 or even $28 per acre, for distributing water to its highest point. 
 
 In my opinion, the distribution system now being placed in 
 the Alessandro District is the most complete and best for or- 
 chard and vineyard irrigation service in California. In express- 
 ing this opinion, the writer does not reflect slightingly on any 
 other neighborhood or system of works. There are others that 
 are excellent. The simple fact is that this Alessandro work is 
 the new r est of its class, and is being carried out under circum- 
 stances that make it pay its projectors to do it as completely 
 and as well as it can be done, in the light of experiences had 
 thus far, and within any reasonable amount of cost, for the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 I do not undertake to consider in detail the cost of water 
 supply to this district. One hundred and twenty dollars per 
 inch, or $6,000 the cubic foot per second of flow, during the 
 period of maximum demand in irrigation, is not a high cost for 
 water supply and deliver}- of this character, on lands of this 
 kind, in the citrus belt of Southern California. It is de- 
 cidedly less than some other very successful orange-growing 
 neighborhoods have paid ; and it is less than .this district could 
 in any other way have secured a supply for. [See Note n.]
 
 Engineer's Report. 29 
 
 DISTRICT VALUATION. 
 
 Referring to the ASSESSMENT AND TAX STATEMENT em- 
 bodied in Exhibit IV, it will be seen that, in the current year, 
 valuations have been placed on property for purposes of tax- 
 ation in the district, as follows : 
 
 Farming lands 
 
 Improvements thereon 
 
 Town property 
 
 Improvements thereon 
 
 R. R. right of way and track 
 
 $2,436,036 
 
 The mean valuation of farming lands is $95.87 per acre; the 
 highest valuation of any 40 acres is at the rate of $100 ; the 
 lowest, $33.50 ; the highest for 230 acres is $100 per acre ; the 
 lowest, $37.45. These valuations, of course, include the water- 
 rights. 
 
 These rates were up to the selling prices of these lands at 
 the time of the tax levy. Now, the ordinary price is $120 per 
 acre. The actual value of this class of lands, with such a water 
 supply and distribution service, in this region, in my judg- 
 ment, is not less than $300 per acre. Compared to other lands 
 and water-rights which now find sale purely for fruit raising 
 as an industry, within five miles of this district, at prices rang- 
 ing from $300 to $600 per acre, I fail to see wherein the differ- 
 ence can be, except that of immediate neighborhood advantage 
 and established sentiment, and these influences will, in all 
 probability, soon be equalized. 
 
 But these lands are worth $300 per acre for what they will 
 produce. Water is already delivered in this district ; irriga- 
 tion is under way ; several thousand acres are already set out 
 to oranges, and other fine fruits and vines. The fact that these 
 will thrive here cannot, in my judgment, be questioned. The 
 place is but a reduplication of soils, exposures, elevations and 
 other conditions under which such horticultural thrift is found 
 in the immediate neighborhood.
 
 30 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 The fact that fmt last year these San Jacinto lands were 
 bought for 10 to 20 dollars per acre, and that, without water, 
 they are not worth more than that now, cuts no figure in this 
 connection. The fact is, they now have water-rights and high- 
 class works. If we accept this fact at all, we must accept it 
 for all it is worth in other and similar cases in the immediate 
 neighborhood, under similar conditions. The fact that they 
 can now be bought for $120 per acre from the developing com- 
 pany is not to the point. The company is selling a portion of 
 these lands at what it deems a fair profit to it, to make imme- 
 diate sales and get population, on which the value of the whole 
 depends. 
 
 Values here on such lands depend on water well delivered 
 and distributed, and on population to use it. The lands are, 
 we might even- say, valueless without water. But with the 
 water delivered they are actually worth as much as any other 
 similar lands with similar water-rights other conditions being 
 equal. [See Note 12.] 
 
 In 1870 there was no Riverside. From 1871 to 1876 lands 
 were preempted on that plain, upon government terms ($2.50 
 per acre within the S. P. railroad grant). In 1884 lands above 
 the original Riverside canals, without water-rights, could be 
 bought at $5.00 per acre. Now, with water-rights, there is not 
 an acre of even moderately good cultivable land that can be 
 had on that plain for less than $300 per acre, bare. This is 
 only two to six miles from the Alessandro District. 
 
 Commencing with 1881, an exactly parallel history has been 
 made at Redlands, but 6 to 10 miles from Alessandro District, 
 and at about the same elevation. Now the Redlands neighbor- 
 hood is a far-reaching horticultural park. The most thrifty and 
 luxurious orchards and vineyards, with many houses even ele- 
 gant as well as substantial, occupy a space of five to six square 
 miles. There is no good land with good water-rights here that 
 can be bought, unimproved, for less than $250 per acre, and 
 $400 to $500 is nearer the mark for that which compares well 
 in soil and surface with the greater portion of the Alessandro 
 tract. 
 
 In 1889 there was about 3000 a^res of orange orchards in 
 Riverside proper. No inconsiderable portion of this was but
 
 Engineer's Report. 31 
 
 just commencing to yield. A comparatively small portion, only, 
 was in full bearing and up to its prime. But there were 1480 
 carloads of this fruit, valued at $1,184,000, shipped from River- 
 side that year, that had been gathered from those 3000 acres, 
 or a gross return of $395 per acre. The raisin crop of. that 
 year has been returned at an aggregate value of $600,000. 
 This would make, with other fruits, fully $1,800,000 from the 
 6000 acres which Riverside occupies, or $300 per acre, over all, 
 though the greater area was not yet producing. 
 
 Other notable examples could be cited. It is a well-known 
 and generally conceded fact, that orange orchards well cared 
 for in this special region, when in full bearing, return from $250 
 to $500 per year, net, to the acre. 
 
 In my opinion the Alessandro District lands, having works 
 up to the best standard, and a water-right as full as need be 
 for any purpose, and being suited to the best horticultural 
 growths, are, judged by the Redlands and Riverside standards 
 and experience, worth now, commercially, an average of at 
 least $150 per acre ; within 10 years they should be worth $300 
 per acre ; and within 10 years thereafter, $450. 
 
 All such values are subject to modification, under the work- 
 ing of the law of supply and demand. These figures are based 
 on proven productive ability, and with the allowance of liberal 
 discount for safety. They are independent of value of improve- 
 ments which may be placed or grown on the lands, and of 
 values dependent on social, climatic, or neighborhood advan- 
 tages for mere residence purpose. 
 
 The values of improvements on farming lands in such cases 
 develop for taxation in greater ratios than those of the lands 
 themselves. There was at time of assessment in this fiscal 
 year practically no improvement on the lands of the Alessan- 
 dro District. But when these are cultivated in 10 and 2o-acre 
 orchards and vineyards, as they will be under thorough irriga- 
 tion, it is reasonable to assume that there will be at least $2000 
 worth of improvements on each ; or say, $150 per acre, on the 
 average. 
 
 Orange orchards, for instance, are improvements, for pur-
 
 32 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 poses of tax revenue ; and this past year they were valued in 
 state and county taxation, in this region, at from $80 to $150 
 per acre, according to age and condition of bearing. Vine- 
 yards, also, found rating at from $75 to $100 per acre, on the 
 assessor's rolls, in addition to land values. The residence 
 houses that are built in neighborhoods of this class, when the 
 orchards and vineyards come into bearing, leaving out the bet- 
 ter ones, range in cost from $1200 to $4500 on a lo-acre or 20- 
 acre tract. Assessed at one-third cost, their taxed valuation 
 would be $400 to $1500, or $25 to $100 per acre for dwelling 
 improvements, counting a house to every 15 acres. 
 
 The $150 per acre for all improvements, when the district is 
 fully developed, say in twenty years would produce a valu- 
 ation on, say, 24,000 of the 25,500 acres, of $3,600,000. 
 
 The corresponding rural population would be about 5,000 
 persons. This would justify a town population of about 2,500 
 people ; and this, in turn, a realty value of about $1,250,000 
 for town property. Upon these assumptions we may, by way 
 of studying the possible future ability to pay its debts, forecast 
 values for Alessandro District about as follows : 
 
 When Irrigation In 10 years 
 
 well commences. thereafter. In 20 years. 
 
 Farming Lands ... .$3,000,000 $6,000,000 $9,000,000 
 
 Improvements 150,000 1,500,000 3,000,000 
 
 Town Property and 
 
 Improvements . . . 200,000 600,000 1,200,000 
 
 $3>35> 000 $8,100,000 $13,200,000 
 
 I believe these to be conservative estimates and predictions 
 for the times to which they apply. 
 
 It must always be remembered, in studying the question of 
 values in such districts, that it is the water united with lands 
 of certain characters, subject to particular climatic conditions, 
 and in the hands of a specially thrifty population, that consti- 
 tutes the basis. 
 
 A district of this class is essentially a development enter-
 
 Engineer's Report. 33 
 
 prise. Its values are created with the money that is put into 
 it as a project. To look for real value, as a basis of credit, 
 behind the created values of the development work, is to look 
 for that which no one for a moment maintains is in existence. 
 
 BONDED INDEBTEDNESS. 
 
 The Alessandro District bonds having been issued to the 
 extent of $765,000 for water delivered, (distribution works, 
 thrown in, as it were,) there is now, as security for the loan 
 contemplated by the law, property now assessed on a valuation 
 of $2,436,036 ; of which $2,396,819 is the rated value of the 
 farming lands. In my opinion, these lands are now actually 
 worth $3,000,000. 
 
 Considering all the property pledged under the law, on the 
 basis of figures in the preceding article, the district which is 
 bonded for $30 per acre, is now worth about $131 per acre ; 
 within 10 } r ears will be worth $318 ; and within 10 years addi- 
 tional $51 8. Arrived at, in a general way, as above written, 
 these valuations are from 30 to 50 per cent within the limits of 
 probabilities which, in my judgment, ma}' well be expected in 
 the light of development precedents in this region ; even allow- 
 ing yet for immense shrinkage of profits in the industries on 
 which all values here depend. [See Notes 13 and 14.] 
 
 PRESENT FINANCIAL CONDITION. 
 
 The finances of this district present a very simple problem, 
 in so far as the present report is concerned. On the yth of 
 March, 1891, by unanimous vote of the electors, the Board of 
 Directors were authorized to issue and sell bonds of the district 
 to the par value of $765,000 ; which was at the rate of $30 per 
 acre on the entire area. 
 
 This was done on May 6th, and on the same day the entire 
 issue was paid at par to the Bear Valley Irrigation Company 
 for water rights (represented by 51,000 Class B certificates) and 
 water delivered, as per the terms of the contract already ex- 
 plained. [See Exhibit V.] 
 
 During this first year of district existence, an assessment 
 3
 
 34 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 of property, for purposes of taxation, has been made at the time 
 of year prescribed in the law, but the time for collecting taxes 
 has not yet come. For this reason the accounts known as the 
 General Fund and the Bond Fund, which are credited with tax 
 receipts to meet, respectively, current administrative expenses, 
 and the interest 011 and principal of bonds, have not as yet been 
 opened. [See Exhibit III.] 
 
 The tax rate has been fixed at $2.25 on the $100, and the 
 total levy for district purposes is $54,384.32. 
 
 FUTURE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK. 
 
 The total assessed valuation of the property in this district is 
 now $2,436,036. With the realization of irrigation now in 
 rapid progress, and in large degree, practically, consummated 
 under the plans described, and with the water-rights contracted 
 for, in my opinion, this taxed valuation, for the purposes of 
 district enterprise, is altogether reasonable. It is a fair index 
 of actual values at the present time, rated on holdings now in 
 individual ownership and gauged by precedent, the most con- 
 clusive and applicable in matters of property assessment in 
 this country. It is about 70 per cent of the present fair commer- 
 cial value which I have arrived at in the manner explained in 
 the preceding article. With this as a first step, it will, in my 
 judgment, be reasonable to assume that the assessed value may, 
 10 years from now, be found at about 60 per cent of the com- 
 mercial value for that time which I have undertaken to foretell. 
 And, finally, for the period still 10 years later, or 20 years from 
 now, in my judgment, we may reasonably expect to see the as- 
 sessed value at as much as 50 per cent of the presumed commer- 
 cial value for that time. A brief statement of estimates, in this 
 line, based on the foregoing, w r ould appear as follows : 
 
 Period of Time. Commercial Per cent of 
 
 Values. Com. Value. Valuation. 
 
 When Irrigation commenc- 
 es, (now) $ 3,350,000 70 $2,436,036 
 
 10 years from now 8,100,000 60 4,860,000 
 
 10 years, still later 13,200,000 50 6,600,000 
 
 The above projected valuations are intended to cover all
 
 Engineer's Report. 35 
 
 classes of property taxable in the district, but they make no 
 allowance for increase of values for railway property which is 
 now taxed. They are not to be taken as indicative of values 
 of farming lauds alone. The foregoing article on District Val- 
 uation has dealt with this point. 
 
 For purposes of an illustration of how this district may meet 
 its bonded debt, I assume that when the time comes for levying 
 the first tax, from the proceeds of which, under the law, the 
 first payment of the principal is to be made the eleventh year 
 from the time of issuing bonds the taxed valuation of property 
 in it will be $4,500,000 and in the last year for such payment 
 the twentieth from time of issue this basis of revenue will 
 be $6,500,000. Then, allowing the increase to be uniform, for 
 the period at the rate of $200, cooper year and observing the 
 provisions of the law about percentages of the par values of 
 bonds to be paid off each year, I project an assessment and tax- 
 lev}' schedule on bond account, for those years, and embody it 
 in Bxhibit II. 
 
 ADDITIONAL BOND ISSUE. 
 
 The issue of $765,000 in bonds by this district was made on 
 the basis of its full area 25,500 acres. Since this* action there 
 has been no change of district boundaries or area. Uncer the 
 contract with the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, the devel- 
 opment methods followed by that company and other large 
 land owners, and the resolution of the Board of Directors of 
 the district, all as heretofore set forth, the district will be fully 
 supplied with water and works complete, at the cost of these 
 bonds already issued. Hence, unless there is failure on the 
 part of the B. V. I. Co., and I see no reason to regard it as 
 otherwise than a thoroughly reliable contract or in this business, 
 there can be no necessity for any further issue of bonds by this 
 district on the basis of its present acreage. There might be an 
 increase of area, by addition of more lands some time, in which 
 event there would, of course, have to be a further issue of bonds 
 for water rights and works on the basis of the added acres.
 
 36 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 RIGHT OF WAY MATTERS. 
 
 This district, as must be apparent from the foregoing, has 
 had no dealings, and consequently no trouble and no expense, 
 on the score of right of way for works. The contracting water 
 compan}* has met all such questions on its main lines of supply 
 to and through the district, and the property owners within its 
 borders construct or pay for distributaries through lands owned 
 by themselves, and, of course, grant right of way for the pipes 
 thus laid. 
 
 CONTRACTS AND CONTRACT RATES. 
 
 For the same reason, there is no statement of contracts and 
 contract rates on district account to be presented, other than 
 that concerning the one contract made with the Bear Valley 
 Irrigation Company. The water privileges controlled by this 
 contracting company, and available for immediate utilization 
 in supplying Alessandro District, are certain rights in the waters 
 of Santa Ana river and Mill Creek, and the reservoired waters 
 of Bear Creek, all on the western slope of the San Bernardino 
 mountains. From a commanding point in this localit)* the 
 present supply is brought by the pipe and tunnel line hereto- 
 fore described. The company has just located and commenced 
 construction on a line of conduit involving canals, tunnels and 
 pipe lines of great cost, to bring the waters of Whitewater river, 
 which now flow from the eastern face of the San Bernardino 
 mountains out into Colorado desert, around the mountain, 
 through San Gorgonio pass, and, piercing the ridge east of Al- 
 essandro District, into San Jaciuto valley. 
 
 These two lines, developed by the addition of more pipes and 
 enlargement of the open conduits, as necessities and engage- 
 ments require, will be the main routes of delivery of Bear Yal- 
 lejr I. Company waters to all its customers on the higher lands 
 in the San Jacinto valley, the Alessandro and Ferris Districts 
 being the chiefest. It has another source commanding service 
 to lower-lying lands in this region. The main works to and 
 through the lands of its customers, built by the B. V. I. Co.,
 
 Engineer's Report. 37 
 
 remain its property, subject to and devoted to use in perform- 
 ing its contracts to the customer, in each case. Its contract is 
 to deliver and furnish water to the Alessandro District, not to 
 build works for it. The works which the district will own are 
 those for distribution, and these are built by the land owners 
 individually the B. V. I. Co. among the number and are 
 presented to the district without charge. 
 
 COST OF THIS IRRIGATION. 
 
 In like manner, the question of cost of irrigation in this dis- 
 trict is greatly simplified. Thirty dollars per acre covers the 
 cost of water delivered. The actual cost of the B. V. I. Co. 
 works to effect this service is yet unknown, even to the com- 
 pany itself. It is sufficient for the purposes of this report to 
 say, that Alessandro District could not have secured a water 
 supply by any other means at any less cost, even if it could 
 have done so at all. 
 
 If we assume, as is not unlikely to be the case, that main 
 works for the full service, pro rata, of Alessandro District, will 
 cost the B. V. I. Co. as much as $17 per acre of the district 
 area r the cost of this irrigation system, including the distribu- 
 tary works at $18 per acre, asalreadv reported, when looked at 
 merely from the engineering standpoint, will have been $35 
 per acre. Taking lands worth certainly less than $20 per acre 
 without water, and making them worth, immediately, really 
 $150 per 'acre, works for the purpose might be regarded as 
 cheap at much more than the above possible cost. The land 
 owner in this district ultimately will have paid for works and 
 water rights, in purchase of land and in payment of bonds, $48 
 per acre, that is, $18 as part of land cost, and $30 for water 
 and delivery. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THIS WORK. 
 
 The works designed and in construction to serve this district 
 are of a kind as yet peculiar to Southern California. This 
 class of irrigation construction, in the present stage of the so- 
 cial and material growth of our country, is commercially prac-
 
 38 Alessandro Irrigation District, 
 
 ticable, on a large scale, only under conditions similar to those 
 found there. Moreover, the element of speculation must be 
 present in the development enterprise, and conditions must fa- 
 vor this. Whether it is speculation on the part of an individ- 
 ual, a private corporation, or a community organized under a 
 districc or other law, does not so very much matter. The essen- 
 tial point is that those who in the initial stages of the enter- 
 prise the first years of development assume the risk and per- 
 form the labor, shall see their way clear to making money by 
 the venture. The cost of water- rights and irrigation works 
 has to be added to the costot" lands served, and the limit of sub- 
 sequent land value over total cost must be great enough to 
 show a large margin of profit in the initial operation. The 
 profits from irrigation industry itself must be left to the culti- 
 vator, who is the actor in the subsequent phase of progress. 
 
 The great margin of profit in enhanced land values, which 
 an expenditure of $25 to $50 per acre for works makes neces- 
 sary, is with absolute certainty to be found only where the 
 raising of fine fruits is, by irrigation, made practicable on lands 
 primarily of little cost. Southern California and localities in the 
 Central and Northern part of this State present conditions where- 
 under this is possible. Here are found, dry and desolate lands 
 and soils, with exposures suited to the growth and maturing of 
 the very finest and most delicate fruits, and climatic conditions 
 that are essential to such production, if only moisture is prop- 
 erly applied. 
 
 But these are not all that is necessary to insure full measures 
 of success in that horticultural practice upon which high-class 
 and high-cost irrigation development enterprises depend. Good 
 and suitable soils, abundant water-rights, good works and fa- 
 vorable climate for the growth and ripening of fine fruits will 
 not alone, however much advertised, at the present stage of 
 social growth, promptly bring to an irrigation neighborhood 
 the population necessary to work out those successes which 
 create the high values of land wherein lie the incentive for 
 first action in such enterprise. 
 
 Neither the irrigator nor the horticulturist, pure and' simple, 
 nor 3 T et the laborer, farm hand, nor farmer, represents the 
 character of immigration essential to the making of such com-
 
 Engineer's Report. 39 
 
 munities as take $200 to $400 per acre per year off of irrigated 
 lands in Southern California, and have built up from nothing, 
 cash land valuations ranging between $500 and $1,000 per 
 acre, unimproved. 
 
 That country has been made, and this species of enterprise 
 has been made possible, by another character of man, who 
 has come to it because he can live there comfortably. It is not 
 climatic advantage as affects horticultural growth, alone, which 
 he finds there, but as affecting human life in the horticultural 
 neighborhood. 
 
 The climate and landscape surroundings of the localities re- 
 ferred to in California, and the facilities for pleasant change, 
 are such as not only to make possible, but to invite, the resi- 
 dence of a more intelligent, energetic, ingenious and thrifty 
 class of people to engage in irrigation than are found elsewhere 
 as irrigators. They come to these neighborhoods with capital 
 some large, some small, so far as money goes but nearly all 
 with some capital in money, and with much more than the old- 
 fashioned agriculturist's or of the foreign irrigator's capital of 
 intelligence, pluck, and business training. 
 
 It is the presence and continued coming of people of this 
 character, in controlling numbers, that makes commercially 
 practicable the construction of the high cost irrigation works, 
 of which Alessandro District affords the present best example. 
 
 We have not been indebted to either irrigators, farmers, or 
 horticulturists from abroad, or from other States, nor yet to 
 those who had become such under the old time methods and 
 primitive works in California, for the development of that high- 
 er order of irrigation water service and culture methods which 
 I have herein described. A class of intelligent, thrifty, and 
 industrious business men came here, and became irrigators, not 
 only because of business enterprise, but on account of the pleas- 
 ant and healthful surroundings and conditions which they 
 found in a number of possible irrigation neighborhoods. 
 
 These people, finding that they could live as they would 
 want to live, in moderate luxury even, in these neighborhoods, 
 and in good health and comfort, also found dormant energies 
 and undeveloped wealth. Being possessed of the business 
 qualities and the means, they have made far greater horticul-
 
 40 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 tural successes, and correspondingly greater revenue, from 
 lands than an}* set of mere irrigators or fanners ever would have 
 achieved here. The}' were not tied up by prejudice, former 
 practice, and a little know-ledge of the subject. They knew 
 nothing that hampered them in learning to make the most out 
 of the country. They had the means to try. They tried, and 
 again tried, and succeeded. They are a class of people w r ho can 
 afford to pay more for lands than a people who have had less 
 advantage of education and business training, and have been 
 raised in communities of less thrift ; because they not only cul- 
 tivate and manage better on the lands themselves, but enter the 
 markets of the world equipped as business men, and make rep- 
 utations and get high prices for their products. 
 
 While, of course, by far the greater number of such people 
 coming here have simply settled down to business and horticul- 
 tural pursuits, representative spirits have taken development 
 enterprises in hand. 
 
 The expenditure of thirty to thirty-five dollars per acre, and 
 even more, on lands worth one to twenty dollars, dry, in works 
 to make them yield large margins of profit over interest on sev- 
 eral hundred dollars per acre, and in rendering possible a bus- 
 iness at once pleasant and healthful, as well as profitable, for 
 cultivated people, has been to such men not only a solid busi- 
 ness proposition, but an operation for enthusiasm. This con- 
 stitutes the business of high-class irrigation development. Irri- 
 gation, principally, of fruits and the vine, is its supplement. 
 
 The Alessandro District is an enterprise purely of this class. 
 It was started with the ownership of 21,000 acres, of the total 
 25,500, in the hands of a speculative company; and the re- 
 maining 4,500 acres were owned by less than a dozen individ- 
 uals, who themselves wanted to serve water to it for purposes 
 of speculation. In my judgment, these circumstances afford 
 the strongest possible assurance of the district success. No 
 mere community of small land owners can compete in the ini- 
 tiation of primary development enterprise, with a well managed 
 speculative company. 
 
 In the first place, land on which a large population could
 
 Engineer's Report. 41 
 
 have existed without irrigation is not suitable to that class of 
 enterprise which will enhance values sufficiently to justify con- 
 struction of the works here necessary. A small population of 
 men of no special business experience cannot manage such an 
 enterprise to as good advantage, commercially, as a powerfully 
 organized speculative company. The Alessandro, the Ferris, 
 and some other irrigation districts now developing in Southern 
 California, are made possible by the existence of great water- 
 supply companies, which can, with profit to themselves, fur- 
 nish water to the districts at costs which their lands will ulti- 
 mately bear. But population there must be promptly, when a 
 large district is opened up for irrigation, else lands lie dormant, 
 and the interest account may not be met. To secure this pop- 
 ulation, extensive advertising and keen business management 
 are essential. These are only assured where there are such pow- 
 erful organization and incentives as speculative enterprise of 
 this character affords. 
 
 In the next place, no such complete and perfect works of dis- 
 tribution as those going into Alessaudro District ever would 
 have been attempted, but for the unification of the speculative 
 advantage to be gained by them. These works are put in to 
 sell the lands at high figures, and they will do it, are doing 
 it. There was no division of opinion on the question of build- 
 ing them, no community to be consulted, no vote to be had. 
 The speculative company builds them, and gives them to the 
 district. The purchasers of land the settlers pay for them 
 in advanced land prices. The better works enhance actual 
 values much more than the cost difference over ordinary con- 
 struction. And, moreover, system and economy of construc- 
 tion keep cost much below that probable under community 
 management. The othtr large land owners take the cue. The 
 improvement becomes complete in the district. A specially de- 
 sirable and thrifty class of settlers is thus drawn in ; and dis- 
 trict success is assured. 
 
 Finally, the speculative company has an interest in the suc- 
 cess of the district beyond the mere selling of its lands. It re- 
 mains a water-supply company to the district, and the rates it 
 is to receive under its contracts with the district itself and with 
 the persons to whom it sells lands are such as to leave this a
 
 42 Ales sand ro Irrigation District. 
 
 profitable business. Hence, its interests will prompt that con- 
 tinued effort which a great corporation can put forth in the in- 
 terest of a neighborhood, but which a new and weak commu- 
 nity can not, to advantage, exercise for itself. The objection to 
 water monopoly raised in connection with irrigation develop- 
 ment in this country is not honestly applicable in cases of this 
 particular kind. In my judgment, such developments could not, 
 for reasons in part only given above, be economically and suc- 
 cessfully realized without it. As to the subsequent burden of 
 water-rentals or annual payments : although such as will be 
 remunerative to a company, they are not found burdensome on 
 these communities. The advantages gained more than offset 
 them. 
 
 The fact, therefore, that speculative enterprise has been at 
 the bottom of Alessandro District formation and promotion not 
 only accounts, in great measure, for the high character of its 
 works, but, to my mind, is a point in favor of its probable suc- 
 cess as a community or settlement. 
 
 This class of works would not be possible, commercially, in 
 any of the old irrigation countries of Europe, Asia or Africa, 
 and I doubt whether as great expense and minute thorough- 
 ness are justified by conditions in our own country, outside of 
 California. 
 
 Consider for a moment the supplying, delivery and distribu- 
 tion of water to these Alessandro lands. It is brought in a 
 steel pipe under high pressure, from a watershed not tributary 
 to the valley, a distance of ten miles ; then it is put through a 
 concrete-lined tunnel about half a mile in length, piercing a 
 dividing mountain ridge ; then in concrete-lined ditches, steel 
 pipes, and "iron-stone" cement-laid pipes, two to fourteen 
 miles additional, to the commanding corner of each twenty- 
 acre tract on which it is to be used. Practically, none of it is 
 lost. It is brought from its mountain home, pure, sweet, and 
 quite cool. It is delivered fit for domestic use. It will be so 
 used up to the limit of demand. . And even in its distribution 
 within the little fields and orchards, it is conducted in pipes, 
 or cement or brick ditches or flumes, to within a few feet of
 
 Engineer's Report. 43. 
 
 the especial square yard of ground into which it is permitted to 
 soak in irrigation. 
 
 There are as yet no works of as high an economic grade pro- 
 jected elsewhere, to serve large areas of land, as are those of the 
 California series into which this Alessandro District system 
 enters. 
 
 The company which has contracted to deliver water to the 
 district constructs the supply arteries of the system. The dis- 
 trict is one of its customers. The district works are simple, 
 easy of construction, cheap of maintenance, and will be eco- 
 nomical of operation and administration, and lasting in charac- 
 ter. They consist of hard-burned "iron-stone," or vitrified 
 clay pipes, laid with cement joints, outlets of similar materials 
 with iron shutters, measuring boxes of concrete or vitrified 
 clay, with iron weirs, and the standard (town supply) water 
 pressure-gates at outlets from main pipes. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WORK. 
 
 For the reason that the district is not constructing any 
 works, it is not possible to present a CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS 
 STATEMENT such as has been made a part of reports hereto- 
 fore submitted by the writer, on other districts. 
 
 The Bear Valley Company's work is being pushed forward 
 with every apparent effort at such haste as thoroughness will ad- 
 mit of. It has expended over $400,000 in supply and delivery 
 works, intended for its customers in this valley. It has ex- 
 pended over $180,000 on works within the limits of Alessandro 
 District, and of this amount more than $80,000 has gone into 
 distribution works which will become the property of the dis- 
 trict. Over 4000 acres of land may now be served as finally 
 intended, and the work is progressing as fast as materials can 
 be delivered by their sub -contractors. 
 
 PROBABLE IRRIGATION EFFECT. 
 
 To one who has read the foregoing pages, it may seem alto- 
 gether superfluous to say anything further as to the probable 
 effect of irrigation in the Alessandro District. The reports, ot
 
 44 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 which this is a single one only, are attempted to be made un- 
 der a system such that they may be compared as between them- 
 selves, and used for reference singly. It is an aim to have 
 matter of each certain class under its heading, even though, 
 incidentally, it has found place in other articles, so that repeti- 
 tion is made necessary where the caption would lead one to find 
 it. Hence, at the risk of the charge of prolixity, I again re- 
 view here the horticultural outlook for Alessandro District, as 
 consequent upon irrigation. 
 
 Practically, there had been before the district work com- 
 menced less than 1000 acres in cultivation of the lands now in 
 the district. A little grain was raised. A struggling orchard 
 and vineyard or two were found. The remaining lands afford- 
 ed a scanty pasture to sheep and cattle for part of each year. 
 
 Irrigation is changing this completely. The orange and lemon, 
 the olive and fig, and the vine are occupying the higher and 
 more sloping lands. Deciduous fruits of many kinds, and es- 
 pecially the pear, with alfalfa and field vegetables on small areas, 
 will be grown on the lower and flatter lands of comparatively 
 heavy soil. 
 
 The agricultural change is now progressing. It will be as 
 complete and radical as any such change could be. The Ales- 
 sandro District lands, lately a waste, almost, are becoming or- 
 chard lands, vine lands, and green pastures. Alfalfa for hay, 
 and field vegetables will be grown for home consumption. Cit- 
 rus and deciduous fruits, olives and the produce of the vine , 
 will find a market by rail, chiefly far from this state. 
 
 LITIGATION AND LOCAL SENTIMENT. 
 
 There has been no litigation about Alessandro District affairs. 
 There has been no difference of opinion as to any question of 
 vital importance touching the district, either among those who 
 live in it, or those who are interested in its lands. The senti- 
 ment of voters and land-owners, alike, is all in favor of irriga- 
 tion by the means adopted, and on the basis of the bonded in- 
 debtednees it makes necessary. The life of this country depends 
 on irrigation. With it, riches come. Without it, poverty. 
 Alessandro is in favor of irrigation, and is able and will be able 
 to pay for it as payment becomes due.
 
 Engineer's Report. 45 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The Irrigation District reports, of which this is but a single 
 one, are being made with the view, so far as the writer can 
 give them character, of stating and explaining the physical and 
 engineering problems, describing the works, and estimating 
 the cost of irrigation to the several districts, with the object of 
 exposing the business status and prospects of each one. The 
 information is, as I understand, desired in this form for those 
 who may contemplate having relations with any such district, 
 or may desire to invest in or handle its bonds. 
 
 There are five general questions which may affect the value 
 of such securities : 
 
 I. Has the district issuing them been given due authoriza- 
 tion and power so to do ? Is the law under which it is 
 formed, constitutional ? Is the organization one which 
 can be granted such power ? Has it been granted the 
 power ? 
 
 II. In the case of the district whose securities are under con- 
 sideration, have all the proceedings taken under this law, 
 up to and including the issue and sale of the special bonds 
 in question, been in accordance with the provisions of the 
 law itself? 
 
 III. Is the realty security offered under the law, commensur- 
 ate in value with the debt proposed to be put upon the dis- 
 trict to carry out its irrigation enterprise ? 
 
 IV. Is the enterprise itself, in which it is proposed to use the 
 money raised on the district bonds, a good one, from en- 
 gineering and irrigation standpoints ? Can it be made to 
 succeed within the limit of cost contemplated, or within a 
 limit commensurate with benefits which the people of the 
 district may expect to receive ? 
 
 V. Are other conditions with respect to this district, and its 
 enterprise, such as to render business prospects therein 
 good ? Will its people probably be prosperous under the 
 burden of debt they take on themselves for this purpose ;
 
 46 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 and hence, probably be inclined to pay the interest and 
 principal of this bonded debt, without making trouble for 
 their creditors ? 
 
 It is understood, of course, that the constitutional and legal 
 points raised by the first interrogatory, and those of law and 
 procedure raised by the second, are foreign to the aspect of the 
 subject to be viewed in this report. 
 
 The writer hereof undertakes, for the case in hand, to defin- 
 itely answer the third and fourth questions, and also to throw 
 some light upon, and express an opinion on, the points raised 
 by the fifth. 
 
 In my opinion, based on facts and reasons stated in and ap- 
 parent from the foregoing review of this enterprise, 
 
 The marketable value of the lands of this district is now 
 much in excess of the bonded debt placed upon it for the pur- 
 chase of water rights and delivery of water to it. 
 
 This is a specially favorable area for irrigation enterprise of 
 the character here projected, and one suitable to be embraced 
 in an 'irrigation district. 
 
 Irrigation industry should succeed in this district. The lands 
 with the water rights should be at least doubled in value, as the 
 effect of it in a very few years ; and within another few years, 
 as population presents itself and demand grows for the prod- 
 uct, these values should enhance as much more in addition. 
 
 The values here referred to are those based on ability to pro- 
 duce and support populations ; and not values based on the de- 
 sire of independent people to possess beautiful grounds, or to 
 engage in fancy farming. 
 
 The property proposed to be pledged under the law is ample, 
 and with a large margin in this case, as security for a bouded 
 debt of $765,000, or $30 per acre on the district ; which is all 
 there is any necessity, under existing circumstances, for plac- 
 ing on it for its irrigation enterprise. 
 
 The district itself has no engineering scheme. The water- 
 supply contracting company constructs its own works and gives 
 the use of them to the district for its service, in return for its 
 bonds. The land owners construct distribution works of high 
 class, and present them to the district.
 
 Engineer's Report. 47 
 
 The water supply for the district is contracted to be delivered 
 by a great water-supplying company, having a large plant, com- 
 manding extensive water rights and privileges, possessing a 
 large capital, and rapidly extending its scope and apparent 
 strength. 
 
 The conditions generally now present, and those likely 
 from ample precedent to prevail, are of character specially 
 favorable to that social and business result in the Alessandro 
 District which should tend to make it a goodJHHH. debtor. 
 
 Any discussion of the principles of Irrigation District laws, 
 or the merits of that which California has enacted, and under 
 which this Alessandro District (and about thirty others) has 
 been formed, would, of course, be out of place here. That is 
 the political side of the question, with which the writer in his 
 present capacity, can have nothing to do. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 WM. HAM. HALL. 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Oct. ist, 1891. 
 
 298958
 
 4 8 
 
 Alessandro Irrigation District, 
 
 Exhibit I. 
 
 ALESSANDRO IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 
 
 Works Construction, to Date, Within the District. By the 
 B. V. I. Co. 
 
 STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES. 
 Sept. 15, 1891. 
 
 
 Excavation 
 and 
 
 Refilling. 
 
 Materials 
 of all 
 Kinds. 
 
 Labor. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Main Canal On Redlands 
 Boulevard South end ol 
 Tunnel to Distrib. Res'r. . 
 
 $1,634 79 
 
 $1,543 40 
 
 $865 55 
 
 $4,043 74 
 
 Distributing Reservoir 
 
 1,290 oo 
 
 267 25 
 
 90 oo 
 
 1,647 25 
 
 Main Flume On Redlands 
 Boulevard Distributing 
 Res'r to Hemlock Ave 
 
 167 99 
 
 i,7" 85 
 
 643 46 
 
 2,523 30 
 
 Main Flume On Ironwood 
 Avenue From Redlands 
 
 33568 
 1,724 38 
 
 2,269 48 
 16,406 oo 
 
 321 46 
 
 112 20 
 
 2,926 62 
 18,242 58 
 
 Main Steel Fife On Cot- 
 tonwood Ave. Redlands 
 Boulevard to Lasalle St. . . 
 
 Main Vitrified Pipe - On 
 Grevillea Ave. Redlands 
 Boulevard to Judson St . . 
 
 5,638 52 
 
 34,222 58 
 
 1,132 91 
 
 40,994 oi 
 
 Main Steel Pipe On diag- 
 onal line Judson St. to 
 Frederick St 
 
 1,627 68 
 700 67 
 
 16,700 42 
 4,670 50 
 
 31 oo 
 343 6 1 
 
 18,359 10 
 
 5,714 78 
 
 Br. Main Vitrified Pipe On 
 Quincy St. Main Canal 
 to A.O.G. & F. Co. Tract 
 
 Lateral Pipes Distributar- 
 ies On Streets from The- 
 odore to Heacock 
 
 20,985 24 
 
 53,942 01 
 
 5,099 05 
 
 80,026 30 
 
 Moreno Town Service Pipes . 
 Totals 
 
 490 64 
 
 5,704 60 
 
 5 oo 
 
 6,200 24 
 
 $34,592 59 
 
 $137,438 09 
 
 $8,644 24 
 
 $180,677 92 
 
 JAMES T. TAYLOR. 
 
 Engineer in Charge.
 
 1 
 
 C 
 
 s 
 
 0) 
 
 I i 
 II 
 
 Exhibits. 
 
 flj 
 
 222222222 
 * 4 &*&.*>& 
 
 MMMNttC4 
 
 00 OOOOOO 
 
 r^ c\ o !^oo r^o 
 
 O O C) N <^5 *v 
 
 ill 
 
 T* 
 
 ) M4 00 vo ""> "^^O 00 
 
 si 
 
 ! l 
 
 .2 -g 
 
 1 -2 
 
 1,2 
 
 NOO P< - N ro 
 
 Tt 
 
 ^88^9,82, 
 
 X) ro - N r^vo 
 
 4 ^ o > 
 
 ' i '5'5 i 
 
 ' 
 
 49
 
 50 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 Exhibit III. 
 
 ALESSANDRO IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 
 Sept. ist, 1891. 
 
 General Fund. 
 
 1890^1 
 
 Receipts (no taxes yet collected) $645 oo 
 
 Disbursements 443 85 
 
 Balance $201 15 
 
 Bond Fund. 
 
 1890-91 
 
 Receipts (no taxes yet collected) None 
 
 Disbursements (no interest yet due) None 
 
 Balance 
 
 Construction Fund. 
 
 1890^1 
 
 Receipts Sale of bonds at par $765,000 
 
 Disbursements Paid for water-rights and delivery. . 765,000 
 
 Balance None 
 
 Summarization . 
 
 General Bond Construction Total 
 Fund. Fund. Fund. 
 
 Receipts $645 oo $765,000 $765,645 oo 
 
 Disbursements.. 44385 765,000 765,44385 
 
 Balances . . . $201 15 $201 15 
 [Signed] 
 
 B. W. BROWN, Treasurer.
 
 Exhibits. 5 1 
 
 Exhibit IV. 
 
 ALESSANDRO IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 
 
 ASSESSMENT AND TAX STATEMENT. 
 
 ASSESSED VALUES OF. AREAS COVERED. VALUATION, iSgo'-gi. 
 
 Farming lands $2,396,819 oo 
 
 Improvements thereon 1,520 oo 
 
 Town property 18,542 oo 
 
 Improvements thereon 200 oo 
 
 Railway right-of-way track and 
 
 depot grounds 18,955 3 1 
 
 Total in district $2,436,036 31 
 
 ASSESSED VALUES OF FARMING LANDS. 
 
 Average of district per acre $ 95 87 
 
 Highest for 40 acres 100 oo 
 
 Lowest for 40 acres 33 50 
 
 Highest for 320 acres 100 oo 
 
 Lowest for 320 acres 37 45 
 
 ASSESSMENTS. 
 
 Rates of levy for district purposes (per $100 of val- 
 uation) $ 2 25 
 
 Total amount levied 54)384 32 
 
 Total amount collected (collections not commenced) Nothing 
 
 TAX RATES. 
 
 State and county (per $100 of valuation) $i 60 
 
 District 225 
 
 Total $3 85 
 
 RAILWAY ASSESSED. 
 
 Mileage 3 55 
 
 Rate per mile $ 5>54 75 
 
 Total valuation 18,955 3 1 
 
 [Signed] 
 
 JOHN T. LEONARD, Assessor.
 
 52 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 Exhibit V. 
 
 ALESSANDRO IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 
 
 BOND ISSUE AND INTEREST STATEMENT. 
 
 OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 
 
 ALESSANDRO IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 
 MORENO, CAL., Sept. i, 1891. 
 
 This is to certify, that the Board of Directors of the Alessan- 
 dro District have, up to date, disposed of bonds of the district 
 to the total par value of seven hundred and sixty-five thousand 
 ($765,000) dollars. These were all paid to the Bear Valley Ir- 
 rigation Compan)*, at par, for 51,000 Class B i-acre Water-right 
 Certificates, under the terms of the contract with that company, 
 dated May 6th, 1891. 
 
 [Signed] 
 
 GEO. H. KELSEY, Secretary.
 
 A'ofes. 53 
 
 Appendix A. 
 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE i. tands may be of good soil, and upon a plain whose general form and 
 slopes are suitable to irrigation, yet still be so rough in details of surface as to cause 
 comparatively much expense in preparation for irrigation. Again, the soils and 
 general appearance of a plain may seem favorable to irrigation, and yet, larger irreg- 
 ularities of form in the ground surface long ridges and " coulees," swells and 
 " draws " dividing the plain into eccentric subdistricts, and making excessive ground 
 slopes, locally may be so pronounced and prevalent as to necessitate much extra 
 expense in carrying out an efficient distribution system, economical of maintenance and 
 in operation. The Alessandro District lands are, in large part, quite free from these 
 drawbacks. They are, as a whole, favorable to economical distribution and low costs 
 of preparation for irrigation. 
 
 Again, to be economically handled under irrigation, a soil must be mellow, friable, 
 receptive, and retentive of moisture, and must not ' ' bake," or form a hard rust after 
 irrigation. Most soils thus favorable are not specially rich are light and sandy. 
 The Alessandro District slopes are rich, and, for the most part, not light, but seem still 
 to possess the above qualities favorable to working under irrigation. 
 
 NOTE 2. Some rainfall records and estimates of precipitation in this southern coun- 
 try are withheld from publication with this report, to be embodied with an opinion on 
 the water-supply of the region generally, and now in course of preparation. 
 
 NOTE 3. Data and statistics of crops and prices the practical money-making re- 
 sults of irrigation in this region are purposely omitted from this report. They only 
 go to establish values, and the writer feels that the statements herein on this point are 
 quite sufficiently conservative, and justified by broad and well-known precedents, to be 
 accepted without this burdensome species of demonstration. 
 
 NOTE 4. From a business standpoint, the necessity for irrigation in any region de- 
 pends on what it is desired to accomplish therein. A region may well support 10 people 
 per square mile without artificial watering, but to support 100 people, irrigation would 
 become an absolute necessity. And these figures may be much varied. Some dry 
 regions, well cultivated, as in wheat-growing sections of this State, support not over 5 
 people per square mile. Some irrigated regions, as quarters of the valley of the Po in 
 Italy, support 350 people per square mile; 
 
 The necessity for irrigation for the support of such dense, or even what we may call 
 " full" populations from 100 to 120 people, directly dependent on agriculture, to the 
 square mile is not governed alone by the quantity of rainfall a country receives, nor 
 is it to be determined exclusively by the fact of unproductiveness. A country may 
 have ample rainfall and yet need irrigation to support such population, as much as one 
 having practically none at all. Conditions of soils andsubsoils, of rainfall distribution, 
 humidity and others of meteorological character, may be such as to turn the scale. There 
 are lands in Northern California tillable and rich in soil ingredients, which will not sup- 
 port five people per square mile under a rainfall of twenty-four inches. There are oth- 
 ers in Southern California, and not " moist " lands either, which support twenty people 
 per square mile under a rainfall of twelve inches, and without irrigation.
 
 54 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 NOTE 5. There is no country where practical agricultural worthlessness and wealth 
 (interpret the words as strongly as we may) lie more closely together than in Southern 
 California. The presence of worthlessness is apparently essential to the existence of 
 local wealth. If all this country were irrigated, and so not worthless, there would be 
 little wealth produced by any of it. The atmosphere of an immense spread of surround- 
 ing dry country is essential to the peculiar wealth-producing ability of the artificially 
 moistened oases. 
 
 There is no country where success, agriculturally, or rather horticul,turally, is or 
 may be so apparently signal ; none, on the other hand, where failure often is so dis- 
 mal and complete. Possibilities are to be judged of here, not by the casual farmers 
 glance, but by broader views, which reach, perhaps, to some distant mountain range, 
 and consider hydraulic problems much above the common. 
 
 XOTE 6. The steadr advancement now found in Southern California is due to hor- 
 ticultural growth. The town lot, speculative craze of 1885-88 is over with. 
 
 NOTE 7. The " miner's inch" is a measure or unit of water flow now much used in 
 connection with irrigation in California, and is about the equivalent of one-fiftieth of a 
 cubic foot per second. 
 
 NOTE 8. " Water duty" refers to the extent of service which any unit volume of 
 supply will perform in irrigation. The cubic foot per second, or " second-foot," is the 
 unit volume ordinarily referred to in speaking of duty under large irrigation projects 
 having open canals of supply. The " miner's inch " is more often used in Southern 
 California, where works are of a higher class, and volumes handled are much less. 
 
 According to the character of cultivation, of soil and sub-soil, method of irrigation 
 and kind of works of delivery and distribution, the duty of water varies in California, 
 even under good management, between 50 acres to the second-foot, or i acre to the 
 miner's inch, and 10 acres to the inch, or 500 acres per foot per second. 
 
 NOTE 9. The value of this class of irrigation depends on the service of just as 
 much water as, and no more than, the soil will take without starting lateral percolation 
 or saturating it down to ground water. When these effects are produced this irriga- 
 tion is excessive and will defeat its object- the production of sweet fruit. Young trees 
 thus habitually over-irrigated always demand such excess thereafter, when grown. 
 
 NOTE 10. The writer does not assume the role of consulting or advisory engineer, 
 in this reporting duty. No criticism will be made on works or projects unless so bad 
 as to affect the value of district securities. 
 
 NOTE ii. Irrigation waters have cost, delivered (not distributed) in Southern Cali- 
 fornia, in good works, from $50 to $400 per miner's inch of continuous flow, and have 
 been sold at materially higher rates. 
 
 NOTE 12. Values of lands of the classes here under consideration, although based 
 o.i ability to yield revenue, yet depend, while a country is developing and being brought 
 under cultivation, upon demand. It takes capital to bring an orange or olive grove in- 
 to bearing. Those who have enough means and desire to take up these industries are 
 not always equal in numbers to the supply of lands served with water and offered. 
 Consequently, there are times of depression in irrigation development enterprise. 
 
 NOTE 13. And after development of the irrigation industry, there must be, as in all 
 business, periods of comparatively low demand for its products. It is not believed by the 
 writer, though, that there is any danger of over-production of the principal fruits of irri-
 
 Notes. 
 
 55 
 
 gation in Southern California. There may be temporary gluts of markets, and losses 
 accordingly, but better transportation facilities and more thorough handling in distrib- 
 ution, it is believed, will profitably place Southern California fruits for many long years 
 to come. 
 
 NOTE 14. Commercial values of lands in Alessandro District might well be placed 30 
 per cent higher than the $150, $300 and $450 per acre, assumed as the sub-basis for 
 figures at succeeding periods in the bond redemption illustration submitted. 
 
 NOTE 15. The value of lands " as mortgage securities " depends on, and is gen- 
 erally less than, their commercial value. Saving banks in California lend on lands from 
 30 to 60 per cent, according to circumstances of their secure values, or the amounts for 
 which they could be sold at forced sale. 
 
 NOTE 16. Comparing, for instance, Alessandro District works with those of Central 
 District, the former will deliver and distribute in pipes to every lo-acre tract, the 
 latter in open ditches to every 640 or 320 acres only. Hence, a potent reason for the 
 wide difference in cost of distribution.
 
 56 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 Appendix B. 
 WATER RIGHT AND DELIVERY CONTRACT. 
 
 THIS AGREEMENT, made and entered into the 6th day of May, A. D. 1891, by 
 and between the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, a corporation, having its prin- 
 cipal place of business at Redlands, in the County of San Bernardino, State of 
 California, the party of the first part, and the Alessandro Irrigation District, a 
 public corporation, in said County of San Bernardino, State of California, the 
 party of the second part, 
 
 WlTNESSETH : That the said party of the first part, for and in consideration of 
 the undertakings of the said party of the second part, hereinafter entered into, 
 has agreed and does agree to and with said party of the second part to sell and 
 transfer to said party of the second part, and does hereby sell to said party of 
 the second part, fifty-one thousand (51,000) Class "B" Acre Water Right Cer- 
 tificates, issued by said party of the first part, and the said party of the first part 
 further agrees to deliver the water represented by said fifty-one thousand Class 
 " B " acre water right certificates at any point below the south end of the tunnel 
 constructed by the said party of the first part in the southeast quarter (S. E. X) f 
 Section Twenty-six (26), Township Two (2) South, Range Three (3) West, San 
 Bernardino base and meridian, along the line of the said Bear Valley Irrigation 
 Company's canal and pipe line, running southeasterly from the south end of said 
 tunnel to Redlands Boulevard, within said Alessandro Irrigation District ; thence 
 south along Redlands Boulevard to the southeast corner of Block Thirty (30) of 
 Map No. I of the Bear Valley and Alessandro Development Company, of record in 
 the office of the Recorder of said County of San Bernardino, State of California ; 
 thence westerly along or near Grevillea Avenue to a point at or near the south- 
 west corner of Block Twenty-five (25) according to said map; thence in a north- 
 westerly direction to a point near the northwest corner of Block Eighteen (18) 
 in said Alessandro Irrigation District ; thence in a southwesterly direction to the 
 southwest corner of Block Two Hundred and Nineteen (219) according to said 
 map ; thence by a line to be hereafter located, to a point at or near the southeast 
 corner of Bleck Three Hundred and Fifteen (315) according to said map, or along 
 any other main line to be hereafter constructed by said Bear Valley Irrigation 
 Company, provided that the said party of the first part, in delivering water along 
 any main pipe lines referred to herein, shall be obliged to provide no greater 
 capacity than is sufficient for the water represented by two of the aforesaid cer- 
 tificates per acre for the lands lying below said main. 
 
 And the said party of the second part hereby agrees to and with the said party 
 of the first part to purchase from the said party of the first part the fifty-one thous- 
 and (51,000) Class " B " acre water right certificates issued by the said party of 
 the first part, and also agrees, in payment therefor, to transfer and deliver abso- 
 utely to said party of the first part the bonds of the said Alessandro Irrigation 
 District, caused to be issued by the Board of Directors of said district, pursuant
 
 Water Right and Delivery Contract. 57 
 
 to a vote of the qualified electors of the said district at a special election duly 
 held therein on the lyth day of March, A. D. 1891, to the amount of seven hun- 
 dred and sixty-five thousand dollars ($765,000) at their par value, all of said 
 bonds to be of issue No. I, and to bear date of May 6th, A. D. 1891, payable in 
 ten series, and bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, payable semi- 
 annually on the first days of January and July of each year. 
 
 And it is further expressly agreed and understood by and between the parties 
 hereto, and as a part of this agreement, that the use of water represented by four 
 thousand (4,000) of the aforesaid acre water right certificates shall commence on 
 the first day of June, A. D. 1891 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1892 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1893 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1894; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1895 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1896 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1897 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by six thousand (6,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1898 ; 
 
 That the use of water represented by five thousand (5,000) of said acre water 
 right certificates shall commence on the first day of April, A. D. 1899 ; and that 
 the water represented by each of the aforesaid fifty-one thousand (51,000) acre 
 water right certificates shall be ready for use thereon on the day on which such 
 use thereof, as stipulated above, is to commence, and continuously thereafter. 
 
 And that the first semi-annual payment of One Dollar and Thirty-nine Cents 
 ($1.39) to become due and payable on each of said certificates shall commence 
 on the first day of the month of October, of the year in which the use of water on 
 such certificates is to commence, as stipulated above, and that the further semi- 
 annual payments of One Dollar and Thirty-nine Cents ($1.39) on such certificates 
 shall be made on the first days of April and October of each year thereafter. 
 
 And it is further agreed by and between the parties hereto, and as a part of this 
 agreement, that the Board of Directors of the said Alessandro Irrigation District 
 shall have the right, on the first day of April, A. D., 1893, an ^ on the first day of 
 April in each year thereafter, to have an increase in the number of the aforesaid 
 Acre Water Right Certificates on which the use of water shall commence in such 
 year, in accordance with the foregoing stipulations, until the use of water shall 
 have commenced on all of the aforesaid certificates ; provided that the said Boa'd 
 of Directors shall notify the said Bear Valley Irrigation Company of such desired 
 increase at least six months prior to the time when such increase is desired. 
 
 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the said parties hereto have caused this contract to 
 be executed by their respective Presidents and Secretaries, and the seals of said 
 parties to be hereto affixed, the day and year first above written.
 
 58 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 Exhibit " I." 
 
 Total Issue, 100,000. Xo Ctfs. 
 
 CLASS B. BEAR VALLEY IRRIGATION COMPANY. 
 
 ACRE-WATER-RIGHT CERTIFICATE. 
 
 In CONSIDERATION OF DOLLARS, in hand paid, and the pay- 
 ment on each certificate issued of $1.39 on the first day of April, and $1.39 on 
 the first day of October, of each year, the BEAR VALLEY IRRIGATION COMPANY, 
 a corporation, organized under the laws of the State of California, and having 
 its principal place of business at Redlands, San Bernardino County, Cal., 
 
 hereby issues to Class B, Bear Valley Irrigation Company Acre 
 
 Water Right Certificates. Each Certificate is issued subject to the contract be- 
 tween the Bear Valley Land and Water Company with the North and South 
 Fork Ditch Companies, Class A Certificates of the Bear Valley Land and Water 
 Company, contract between the Bear Valley Land and Water Company with the 
 Redlands-Lugonia and Crafton Domestic 'Water Company for 200 1-7 inches of 
 water, contract between the Bear Valley Land and Water Company with the 
 Crafton Water Company for 57 1-7 inches of water. Each certificate is hereby 
 guaranteed by this company to entitle the owner thereof to receive one acre foot 
 of water per year (an acre foot being 43,560 cubic feet of water) to be supplied 
 from , and from no other source whatever. 
 
 The owner of this certificate may elect to cumulate the use of the water which 
 each certificate entitles him to receive in any manner he desires, provided, how- 
 ever, that this Company shall not be compelled to furnish more than 1-8 of an 
 inch of water to each certificate, at any one time (an inch of water is equal to a 
 flow of 1-50 of a cubic foot of water per second). The water called for by these 
 certificates shall not become appurtenant to the land upon which the same may 
 be used, but these certificates shall always be personal property, and a transfer 
 hereof shall only be made by surrender of this certificate to the Company, prop- 
 erly endorsed, and the issuance by this Company to the transferee of a new 
 certificate. It is agreed between the holder of this certificate and this Com- 
 pany that, on each certificate, there shall be paid $1.39 on the first day of April, 
 and $1.39 on the first day of October, of each year, and that said sums shall be 
 due and payable to the Secretary of the Company, at the office of the Company, 
 at Redlands, Cal., without notice, and if not paid within 60 days after the same 
 becomes due, this certificate shall become null and void, at the election of this 
 Company, and all payments shall be forfeited to the Company as liquidated 
 damages for the non-payment of such sums. Such forfeiture shall become effect 
 ual upon the passage of a resolution of the Board of Directors declaring such 
 forfeiture. It is agreed that time is of the essence of this agreement, and that 
 by the receipt of this certificate, the holder thereof assents to and agrees to all 
 of the above stipulations. 
 
 Secretary. President.
 
 Closing Letter. 59 
 
 Appendix C. 
 
 CLOSING LETTER. 
 
 OTHER IRRIGATION DISTRICT ENTERPRISES. 
 
 WM. HAM. HALL, STATE IRRIGATION ENGINEER OF CALIFORNIA; 1878-1888. 
 
 CONSULTING CIVIL ENGINEER, SUPERVISING IRRIGATION ENGINEER 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ; 1889-1390. 
 
 FLOOD BUILDING. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 5th, 1891. 
 J. W. NANCE, ESQ., 
 
 President State Association Irrigation Districts, 
 DEAR SIR : 
 
 In transmitting the foregoing report on the Alessandro Ir- 
 rigation District, it will not be amiss for me to guard against 
 possible misapplication of some of its paragraphs ; and, hence, 
 this closing letter on the subject of irrigation district enter- 
 prises in general. 
 
 Under the request you have made to the directors of the 
 various districts, to have their projects examined and reported 
 upon for information in financial circles, as suggested to you 
 and others by certain leading men in San Francisco banking 
 circles, it is but natural that the district officers having most 
 confidence in their enterprises, and with plans of works already 
 well developed, should be first to request that such projects be 
 reported upon. 
 
 The Alessandro District is a case in point. It has been the 
 third to make application for my services, and is the third re- 
 ported upon, and I have found its engineering affairs in good 
 condition. 
 
 It has now transpired that apparently three of the very best 
 districts in the State have been first to present themselves. 
 The inference plainly is, that what might be reported of some 
 other districts, should I be called on to examine them, is not 
 to be forejudged by what I have written in the reports thus far 
 made.
 
 60 Alessandro Irrigation District. 
 
 As I have tried to be plain and thorough in treating of dis- 
 tricts whose enterprises deserve approval and even praise, in 
 my judgment, so shall I not hesitate to be equally explicit and 
 decided in condemnation, should any district project come be- 
 fore me for review which I believe to be unsound. 
 
 It is to be remembered, however, that district officers having 
 charge of good enterprises may not present them for examina- 
 tion at all. 
 
 Moreover, because I may now have written of the Central, 
 the Ferris, or the Alessandro District, that it has a good project, 
 specially because of some certain favorable circumstances or 
 features, it does not necessarily follow that district enterprises 
 which have not all such advantages are not good. 
 
 The question of water-supply, particularly, is one which has 
 to be considered with absolute independence for each case. 
 Enough water per acre with works of a certain class, cultiva- 
 tions of certain kinds, and soils of such and such grades, might 
 not be enough were these conditions altered. 
 
 But water-suppl}' problems sometimes admit of solution in 
 ways not at first apparent. Storage of flood waste waters, or 
 even development of underground Sowings, may put a district 
 project in first-rate form, where nothing but conflict with prior 
 appropriators and other interests seemed at first imminent. At 
 the same time, these are problems to be studied, and not an- 
 swers to be jumped at. There is going to be failure in instances 
 of this sort of thing, and consequent disaster, at some places in 
 this State. 
 
 As to conflicts over water rights, of which so much is said and 
 threatened : unquestionably, a number of district enterprises 
 will have to incur these. But the law anticipates this, and pro- 
 vides for it. The question in each case will be as to the meas- 
 ure of conflict ; its possible influence ; its probable cost ; the 
 ways of avoidance ; the outlook for compromise ; its probable 
 effect on district prosperity, and, consequently, on district credit. 
 
 I have now reported two districts out of three as having, so 
 far as I can ascertain, a unanimous feeling among their tax- 
 payers in favor of the district irrigation work. But it does not 
 follow that a district having a less harmonious and favorably 
 disposed property ownership has not a good enterprise.
 
 Closing Letter. 61 
 
 Experience with these developments has shown rue that 
 there is a class of people who resist every advance step it pub- 
 lic enterprise, especially when it comes in a form not altogether 
 familiar to them ; and more especially when it is under guid- 
 ance of their nearest neighborhoods. 
 
 There are irrigation enterprises in this State whose full re- 
 alization would, under proper guidance and in a thorough way, 
 be cheap at a cost over $50 per acre of lands served under them. 
 There are others which would be disastrously dear at $5 per 
 acre for water, works and distribution. It cannot be judged, 
 therefore, from the costs reported as reasonable for the districts 
 thus far examined, what might be within bounds for other 
 schemes. 
 
 Several districts appear in these foregoing reports as making 
 fairly complete and systematic business and engineering ex- 
 hibits of their affairs. Other districts may not at once, and 
 without preparation, be able to furnish data for such exhibits. 
 That is no reason why they may not have their engineering 
 plans and estimates, and official accounts, put into equally sat- 
 isfactory form before calling for an examination, however. 
 
 There may be district schemes in the State which are not on 
 their face, as now organized, as sound as those thus far report- 
 ed on. But such may be susceptible of reorganization. There 
 may be some other good project available for the lands of a 
 district, or a large part of them. And, hence, the poorest ap- 
 pearing districts, even as now organized, and works as now 
 projected, should not, on superficial knowledge, be finally 
 judged by comparison with Central, Ferris, or Alessandro Dis- 
 tricts, as these have been reported. 
 
 In short, there are many points of this kind which might be 
 mentioned. Each district presents its own problem ; and it 
 cannot be judged from one report what another may or should 
 be. I write this that I may not be misinterpreted, and that I 
 may not, through mistaken inference, be thought to do injust- 
 ice or harm in any quarter. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 WM. HAM. HALL, 
 
 Consulting Civil Engineer.
 
 62 Attorney? Opinion. 
 
 SAMUEL M. WILSON. ) 
 
 RUSSELL J. WILSON. > 
 
 MOUNTFORD S. WILSON. ) 
 
 LAW OFFICES OF WILSON & WILSON, 
 
 202 SANSOME ST. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 
 
 November gth, 1891. 
 
 To HON. J. W. NANCE, 
 
 President State Association Irrigation Districts, 
 
 DEAR SIR. We have, at your request, carefully exam- 
 ined the proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Alessandro 
 Irrigation District, taken by that Board in the Superior Court 
 of the County of San Bernardino, under the " Confirmation 
 Act," passed by the Legislature of the State of California on 
 the 1 6th day of March, 1889, said examination having been 
 made for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not those pro- 
 ceedings conform to the requirements of said Act ; and beg 
 leave to report that we are of the opinion that all of said pro- 
 ceedings are covered by, and are in conformity to, the require- 
 ments of said " Confirmation Act." 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 WILSON & WILSON.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 NOY 
 
 6 1902 
 'D: 
 
 r 5 
 
 RENEWALS 
 
 MAR 12 
 APR 03 986 
 
 
 For information as to Bonds, address 
 
 CHAS. W. GREEN, Murray Hill Hotel, New Yor
 
 824 Hall - 
 
 r ^iessandro 
 cop. 2 irrigation 
 district. 
 
 TC 
 824 
 
 C2H14a 
 cop. 2 
 
 3 1158 0108 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL 
 
 000 947