OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 208 



actively prosecuted. It is hoped that the investigations will be com- 

 pleted and reported on during the curi-ent fiscal year. It is of course 

 very gratifying that the people of California should have sufficient 

 confidence in the method and organization of the investigations to be 

 willing to contribute private funds so largely to aid in the work. 



IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN UTAH. 



At the earnest request of the State engineer of Utah and other per- 

 sons interested in the irrigation problems of that State, a beginning of 

 studies of these problems has been made. This includes the collec- 

 tion of data to show the amount of water now being appropriated and 

 used from the Jordan River and its tributaries. Tliis work is now 

 being cari-ied on in cooperation with Hon. R. C. Gemmell, State engi- 

 neer, and Mr. F. C. Kelsey, city engineer of Salt Lake. The State 

 and city are cooperating financially in this work. 



This Office has undertaken the collection of data regarding the use 

 of water from the tributaries, while the city of Salt Lake is at work 

 upon the main stream. Mr. Arthur P. Stover, assistant in irrigation 

 investigations, is in immediate charge of our work and has been 

 assisted by Mr. W. B. Searle, of Provo, Utah. This work will be con- 

 tinued during the i^resent season. 



Beginning Avitli July 1, 1900, Mr. J. D. Stannard, assistant in irri- 

 gation investigations, has undertaken a similar investigation on the 

 Weber River. Regarding the importance of these investigations. 

 Professor Mead writes as follows : 



Unless some simpler and cheaper method of settling titles to water than now 

 prevails in Utah can be secured the litigation over such rights is certain to be 

 little short of disastrous. The complications already created are so numerous 

 that it will reciuire at least six months' additional time to collect on the Jordan 

 the data necessary to enable us to describe the existing situation. The Utah State 

 legislature meets next winter. Irrigators are anxious to end the uncertainty 

 which now prevails and secure stable titles which will insure protection in times 

 of scarcity. There is urgent call for whiitever aid the Office of Experiment Sta- 

 tions can render. It was thought adv. sable to comply as far as possible with this 

 sentiment, and the best method of promoting wise action seemed to be to show 

 how water is distributed and used under the existing system, thus placing before 

 legislatures a concrete illustration of the merits and defects of the laws now in 

 force. 



STUDIES OF THE IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN COLORADO. 



Hon. A. J. McCune, State engineer of Colorado, is now engaged in 

 13rej)aring a report on the rights to water from the Big Thompson 

 River. This will describe the procedure in Colorado in the establish- 

 ment of water-right titles and tlie operation of their State system in 

 protecting these rights. Hon. E. S. Nettleton, formerly State engineer 

 of Colorado, but now an agent and expert in this investigation, is pre- 

 paring a report on the reservoir system of the Poudre Valley in Colo- 

 rado. This system of storage basins furnishes a large part of the late 

 water supply for nearly 150,000 acres of land, which is the largest 

 area ii-rigated from stored water in any single valley in this country. 

 The methods of collecting and distributing this water are the out- 

 growth of an experience extending over the past fifteeen years. In 

 this time many changes and improvements have been effected and 

 the system now gives general satisfaction. It is believed that this 

 bulletin will be of great service to irrigators in sections where reser- 

 voir building is in its infancj^ but where it must in the near future 

 become an important factor in the extension of the reclaimed territory. 



