100 



Some canals show even larger losses. The measurements made 

 show losses of over 30 per cent in a single mile, while the average 

 loss for all canal measurements reported is 18.22 per cent (see p. 93). 

 While it is impossil)lc to prevent all these losses, great improvements 

 can be made at small expense. 



As the demand for water increases these conditions will tend to lie 

 corrected, but the practice of the courts of decreeing- rights to enough 

 water to supply land after a large part of it has been lost in transit 

 will not tend to correct this evil. If a man is granted sutticient water 

 for his land under economical use, and this quantity is measured to 

 him at the head of his ditch, he will make every effort to stop losses 

 which leave him without water enough for his land. This has ])een 

 done in Nebraska. The law tixes the limit at 1 cubic foot of water 

 per second for 70 acres, and the State supreme court has held that the 

 measurement must be made at the head of the ditch. The State cer- 

 tainlv has a right to insist in this way upon an economical use of its 

 resources. 



CARELKSS IKRICATION. 



Where irrigated farms are large and skilled labor difficult to secure, 

 the tendency is to cro}) a larger area than can l)e properly cared for. 

 The average Montana farmer likes to have a large acreage in crops. 

 His fields, as a rule, are well plowed and harrowed, but having per- 

 formed what he considers these necessary preliminary operations and 

 drilled in sufficient seed, he pays little attention to the condition of 

 the surface for rapid and efficient irrigation. More care in this regard 

 would pay well. If the surface is once carefully graded and the 

 ditches located and built in such a maimer as to meet the local require- 

 ments, a forage ci-op like alfalfa, may he. grown for ten successive 

 j^ears with little additional outlay. The same is practically true of a 

 grain crop. Even with a hoed crop like potatoes or sugar 1)eets, it is 

 an easy task to reduce the surface to a uniform grade before the next 

 crop is seeded. 



The surface of the average irrigated land can be put in reasona))ly 

 good condition for irrigation for §5 per acre, but to be safe it is here 

 assumed that the cost is $7.50. This principal at 12 per cent would 

 yield a revenue of 90 cents a year, and represents the difference between 

 a rough, uneven surface and a smooth, graded surface. In the case of 

 alfalfa, which is cut three times, this annual interest Avould amount to 

 30 cents per acre for each crop. The labor of irrigating the properly 

 prepared field is much less, there is a saving of water, the soil is not 

 damaged, there is considerable increase in the yield, and the ([uality 

 of the crop is improved. Taking all this into consideration, an expendi- 

 ture of $7.50 per acre would return r»(i instead of 12 per cent. While 

 only one crop is harvested in a y(nir, the advantages of a carefully 



