The district of Alicante is supplied with water from the river Monegre, and the Elche district from the river Minalapo. In the northern part of the province is the Murviado irrigation district, taking its water from the river Palencia. The Jucar irrigation district, situated immediately south of the _huerta_ of Valencia, takes its water from the Jucar river, distributing 850 cubic feet of water per second upon some 50,000 acres of land.
The Valencia irrigation district consists of 26,350 acres of land close to the town of Valencia, and is watered by the river Guadalaviar, or, as it is generally called, the Turia. The water is distributed through eight canals, each carrying from 35 to 120 cubic feet of water per second, the combined low-water discharge of all the canals being from 250 to 350 cubic feet of water per second. Of the importance of irrigation in this district, we can judge when we learn that the above 26,350 acres contain 72,000 inhabitants and sixty-two villages, or an average of 1,774 people per square mile, not including the city of Valencia itself, with a population of 120,000 people. It is also remarkable that this enormous population on a territory not as large as the arable land surrounding any one of our principal inland towns in California, is not alone due to the irrigation and care of the land, but to the minute subdivision of the land, which makes this culture and irrigation possible. It is a practical illustration of the value of the colony system as inaugurated in California, showing what we can expect of our inland plains when they become fully irrigated and the land properly subdivided.
_Quality of the Raisins._--It has already been stated that the grapes grown in Denia are the Muscat of Alexandria, which were introduced there by the Moors. Farther south, in the Alicante district, other varieties are more common, but play no important part in the raisin production of the district. The Valencia raisins are inferior to those of Malaga, the want of heat requiring them to be dipped in lye before drying. This, again, gives these raisins a peculiar reddish, semi-transparent color, which unfits them for table raisins. The Valencia raisins are principally used for cooking; even the best grades of Valencias are inferior to the inferior grades of Malaga raisins. During the last season (1889) large quantities of Denia grapes were cured on the Malaga style, and with great success. Large quantities of such sun-dried Denias were sent in bulk to Malaga, and there repacked for export to the United States, the Malaga crop having so diminished that the usual demand could not be supplied. Years in which such sun-drying is possible in Denia are rare.