OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 201 



new enterprises which the Department has attempted, the training of 

 the expert force is a matter of great importance. This is necessarilj- 

 a task which involves considerable time. It is believed that a good 

 beginning has been made, and now that the requirements of this 

 service are becoming better understood students in our colleges will 

 fit themselves for this work as far as they can do so in connection 

 with their college courses. 



As far as practicable, arrangements have been made with officers 

 connected with the agricultural experiment stations and colleges 

 receiving the benefits of the acts of Congress of 1862 and 1890 to coop- 

 erate in these investigations. The development of special forms of 

 apparatus required in the work has been given much attention. A 

 testing station has been established at Cheyenne, where the apparatus 

 received from the manufacturers is tested before being sent out to the 

 local observers. One immediate effect of the measurements of the 

 duty of water Ijy this Office has been a considerable demand for instru- 

 ments Avith which private parties can make their own measurements. 

 One problem, to which some study has already been given, is the 

 devising of a clieap and satisfactory instrument for measuring the duty 

 of water on farms. 



In connection with the experiment station exhibit at the Paris Expo- 

 sition an exhibit showing the work of the Office in irrigation investi- 

 gations was prepared, including apparatus, models of some distinc- 

 tively American irrigation works, and photograj)hs and drawings 

 sliowing the irrigation system of this country, especially as related 

 to the irrigation investigations of the Office. 



GENERAL PLAN OF IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 



in accordance with the terms of the appropriation act, two general 

 lines of investigations have been pursued: (1) The study of the laws 

 and institutions relating to irrigation in different regions, and (2) the 

 determination of the actual use made of irrigation waters. As the 

 main object of studying the laws and institutions of the irrigated 

 region is to l)ring out the ways in which existing conditions are unsat- 

 isfactory and may be improved, it has been found that this line of 

 investigations should ])e immediateh^ connected with the investiga- 

 tions regarding the use of water. It, has also been found more satis- 

 factory to make as thorough an investigation as practicable of particu- 

 lar regions rather than to scatter our studies over wide areas. For 

 these reasons the two lines of work are being carried on together in a 

 number of places. 



IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



The largest single enterprise connected with the irrigation investi- 

 gations in Avhich the Office is at present engaged is in the State of 

 California. The growing value and increasing scarcity' of water are 

 creating an imperative need for better laws to control the distribution 

 of streams in that State, and there is much public interest in this 

 subject. A convention of irrigators held in San Francisco in Novem- 

 ber, 1899, requested this Office to make a study of the water-right 

 problems of that State and prepare a report thereon. The California 

 Water and Forest Association, which grew out of this convention, 

 offered to extend financial aid in the prosecution of these studies, and 

 has placed at our disposal $5,250 to be expended in such investigations 

 in accordance with the plan agreed upon. The University of Call- 



