13 



ditch refused to pay. The result has beeu that a great uiany canals 

 were without nieasurinjz; devices. 



In 189 1 the water odicials were empowered to shut off the water 

 from any ditch in whicli proper head gates and measuring devices 

 were not placed after ten days' notice. This has l)een quite effective, 

 and measuring devices are now (juite generally in the canals. The 

 State engineer is required to rate the measuring flumes if they are put 

 in, but has never had funds with which to do this. The practice 

 has been for the engineer or a deputy to rate ditches whenever the 

 owners would pay the expenses, but not otherwise. At present the 

 fees paid to the State engineer for examining and approving ditch and 

 reservoir filings and furnishing copies of the records of his oflice go to 

 make u]) a gauging fund to be used for stream and canal gauging, but 

 this is still too small to cover the work which should be done. 



A single water district nuiy cover 50 miles of the course of a stream 

 and the ditches among which the water is to be divided are scattered 

 along tliis distance. In this distance there are losses and gains in the 

 flow, due to seepage from the bed of the stream and eva])oration on the 

 one hand and return seepage on the other hand. This makes it nec- 

 essary for the commissioner to have an intimate knowledge of his 

 stream, in addition to a record of the supply entering his district. 

 The water-right holder is entitled to have a certain quantity of water 

 at his head gate, not at the head of the stream. If the ditch is at the 

 lower end of the district it may be necessary to let twice as much as 

 he is entitled to go })y later ditches above in order to supply him, or 

 return seepage may supply the whole volume and render it unneces- 

 sary to turn any water down from above. The commissioner must 

 learn by experience the behavior of his stream in order to divide its 

 water properly. In the more highly developed districts there are 

 measuring stations in the streams supplying the water, where daily or 

 more frequent readings are made, and most of the ditches have meas- 

 uring devices. The irrigation practice has become sufficiently set- 

 tled to enable the commissioner to know how much he must turn 

 down the stream to give each ditch its proper share of the water, and 

 the demand for water is so great that there is little danger of wasteful 

 use. The commissioner of such a district receives each morning by 

 telephone a statement of the stage of the river, then goes over the 

 stream, regulating the head gates of the ditches as may be necessary 

 to make a proper division or telephones the ditch managers, telling 

 them how much water to take, going over the district often enough 

 to assure himself that his orders. are being carried out. 



Changing a head gate which has been set by a water commissioner 

 is punishable with a fine not exceeding $300 or sixty days' imprison- 

 ment or both such fine and imprisonment; and the fact that the 



