of canals to divert the water of the larger rivers of the coun try upon lands which are not watered. This last of course, can be accomplished only by the construction of large works, involving the expenditure of a vast amount of capital. At present the water is taken from only the smaller streams, for the reason that it requires less capital and can be taken out much easier. The great streams of the country remain comparatively untouched for the purpose of irrigation. But the time is coming when their forces will be called in to assist in this enterprise as one of the great necessities of the country.

§ 30. Suppression of Wasting Waters.-There is no doubt as to the power of the legislatures of states and territories to enact laws, as many have done, for controlling and supervising the distribution of water from the streams running within their respective boundaries, and used for the purpose of irrigation, either by appropriators or those claiming the right to the use of the waters by virtue of being riparian owners, and thus preventing parties from causing wastage by diverting more than is actually needed for the purpose for which the appropriation was made. In fact all the states affected by whole or partial aridity in their agricultural development have taken some action in the direction of regulating and controlling the use of the waters required for the purpose of irrigation. State Engineers, Boards of Public Control, or Irrigation Commissioners, are provided for this purpose either by the constitutions of the respective states or by enactments of their legislatures, the duties of which officers are, as their names indicate, to control, supervise, and in some states adjudicate, all questions relating to waters and water rights. Any one dissatisfied with the decisions of the board can have recourse to the courts. But especially of late years, when every year the area of land for which water is needed is increasing and the supply is constantly diminishing, it has been the policy of legislatures and courts as far as possible to suppress all wastefulness or wasteful methods in the use of waters. In the early days a prior appropriation was esteemed to cover all water in sight, whether it was needed or not. But the

principle of "beneficial use" as the population increased soon put an end to that conception. More stringent regulations may still be made in places, which will benefit not only those who have at present water rights in a certain stream, but also those desiring to divert water from the same. There are many appropriators who still demand the amount of water claimed by them at first, although that amount is many times more than is actually needed by them for the purpose to which they apply it. Having no knowledge whatever of the proper use of water as an aid to agriculture when they first made the appropriation, and there being at that time an entire absence of any written authority on the subject from which they could learn, and water then being plentiful, it followed as a matter of course that settlers adopted very wasteful methods in the use of it. Many of them still keep up those methods notwithstanding the fact demonstrated by practical experience that by so doing they are raising smaller and poorer crops than they could raise by using the water more sparingly. In many places it has been shown that from a given stream five or six times as much land could be irrigated as had been thought possible in early days. But even with the present various enactments for the prevention of these wasteful methods the natural flow of streams is becoming daily more and more inadequate to meet the demand, and finally it has become apparent that if the progress of the irrigation development is not to be seriously checked more stringent measures will have to be enacted, or other sources of supply must be sought.1

§ 31. Storage Reservoirs.-The adoption of systems of storage for the conservation of the flood waters now annually going to waste has been agitated for some time past. Irrigators look forward to this method as one of most effectual means of obtaining relief from present troubles and uncertainties. Progress in this direction will, however, be necessarily slow, from the fact that in an undertaking of

1 See Chapter VI., Section 165, cases cited, Wheeler vs. Northern Colorado Irr. Co., 10 Colo. 582; 17 Pac. 487.

this kind the outlay of capital before any return can be realized must be very large. Efforts have been made to have Congress build these reservoirs, but as yet without avail; and nothing has been done by the general government beyond a few surveys and measurements made by the Geological Survey (whose operations were discontinued) and the enactment of the law of March 3d, 1891, sections 18-21, which provides for, among other things, a reservation for rights of way for canals, and for sites for reservoirs.

Quite a number of private reservoirs have been built with varying success throughout the west. In some sections of the country, such as parts of Arizona and New Mexico, owing to the physical features of the territory, irrigation must depend absolutely upon the storage of the water supplies. Also there are certain sections upon the great plains where this can be successfully done. But this system has been most satisfactorily applied upon small mountain streams which flow down into valleys where irrigation is needed. Without a storage system water enough to irrigate thousands of acres runs to waste in the winter and spring, instead of being hoarded up for the summer season, when it becomes of inestimable value at a time when the stream itself is so reduced in volume as to be insufficient to supply perhaps two or three farmers who lay claim to its waters by prior appropriation.

§ 32. Same.-Legal Contemplation.-There are necessarily legal complications that must be decided before any large scheme of this kind can be successfully projected. On nearly every stream throughout the arid region more water is claimed than is available, and were a man or a corporation to store any of the flood waters, and restore these to the stream in time of drought, the question would at once arise: to whom do these waters legally belong, and how are they to be distinguished from those which flow naturally into the stream and which have all formerly been appropriated? And if these questions were satisfactorily solved, then come other and more difficult problems as to the practicability or possibility of the owners of this stored water actually recovering it, especially

if to bring it upon new desert lands and out in the valleys the stream by which this stored water was conveyed flowed by the headworks or over the diverting dams of a number of ditches, the several owners of which were in need of water and claimed an appropriation of the waters of the stream to an extent much greater than they were then using. Before any such scheme can be successful it will be necessary to ascertain not only the amount of water naturally flowing in the stream day by day and year by year, and all the legal claims to the water, but also the actual usage of the same by the respective individuals, and the different amounts which each should justly receive. There is a wide discrepancy between the quantity of water which a man claims by virtue of his appropriation and that which he usually actually receives, for his recorded claim may apparently give him more water than flows in the stream, while he actually receives only a small portion. If, therefore, the company storing the water were compelled to supply all those having claims to the stream there would be none left for the company's use, and consequently the storage enterprise would be a failure.

Agricultural development, therefore, by the use of stored water, or even by the more economical use of present supplies, must rest upon the cordial co-operation of all the parties who are at present enjoying the use of water from the same source. The difficulty of such co-operation is fully appreciated by the people of the arid region, and many plans have been discussed for bringing this about, either by state control of all the waters, which plan, as we shall see, has been adopted by the states of Colorado and Wyoming, or by the formation of districts exercising certain powers, an example of which is the California district law; or by municipal corporations working towards the same end. The great stumbling block is the fact that so many individuals of different minds and opinions have property rights in the waters of the streams, which must be extinguished amicably or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain, which in the recent district law of Nevada is forbidden. That the various owners of the waters do not at once co-operate in some of these plans is not to be laid wholly to individual

cupidity or lack of public spirit, but rather to the fact that to each irrigator this matter is of most vital importance. The value of each man's property appears to be at stake, and that which he has acquired by long years of toil and hardship is not to be given up at once on any plea of the good of the community, especially if, to him, the benefits to be derived seem doubtful and uncertain. The farmers also have a natural fear of being in some way imposed upon in making any radical changes, and are harassed by the dread of falling into the grasp of monopolies, and thus, perhaps, prefer to endure present evils rather than to encounter those which are unknown.

§ 33. Artesian Wells.-Artesian wells result usually from the drilling or piercing of pervious strata filled with water, which is held from escaping by impervious layers both above and below. The hydrostatic pressure on this water, owing to the inclination of the bed, is sufficient to force it to the surface. In general the use and value of water from artesian wells is not so desirable for irrigation as is the water from rivers and creeks, from the fact that the latter usually contains a larger amount of silt, which serves to enrich the land and prevent loss of fertility. Artesian well water, on the other hand, is almost always clear, although it sometimes carries a quantity of mineral salts in solution, ranging from those nearly as soft as rain water to the strongest brine. But in spite of these facts there are many wells the water of which may be used for irrigation, and thousands of acres of land have been reclaimed by this means. The following table gives the total number of artesian wells, the average depth in feet, the average discharge in gallons per minute, average area irrigated per well, and total area irrigated in June, 1890, according to Census Bulletin, No. 193, issued June 11th, 1892, prepared by Mr. F. H. Newell, Special Agent: