108 



proportion to the amount of water which each has received. Any 

 person wlio is dissatistied with the report of the water commissioner 

 may have a hearing- before the judge. 



The amended law reipiires the water user to provide a suitable head 

 gate and a measuring device, and persons failing to supply these struc- 

 tures receive no water. 



With general provision for th6 adjudication of all existing rights 

 and the orderly acquirement of rights in the future, it would seem 

 best to su])ersede the present commissioners appointed by the courts 

 bv those a[)pointed by the governor under some system that will insure 

 the appointment of men familiar with irrigation practice. 



In providing for distributing water each drainage basin should l)e 

 regard(>d as a unit. The wisdom of this course is plainly seen in the 

 behavior of the Bitter Root River. On August 12, 1903, the flow at 

 (rrantsville was y>-21 cubic feet per second, and leaving out of consid- 

 eration the inflow from tributaries, the gain due to seepage in a dis- 

 tance of -18 miles was 1,111 cubic feet per second. It would, therefore, 

 be unnecessary to shut water out of late canals at the upper end to 

 supply older ones below, since they would be supplied l)y seepage. 

 A long stream would not be within the jurisdiction of a single court, 

 and some official with a wider jurisdiction than a court commissioner 

 should have charge of the distribution of water from such a stream. 

 In Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada this has 

 been provided for by the appointment of water commissioners by the 

 governor, upon recommendation of the county commissioners in some 

 States and of the division engineer or superintendent in other States. 

 In each of these States the plan is to divide the State into divisions on 

 drainage lines in such a way that no stream will be in more than one 

 division, and divide these into districts of any convenient size, trying 

 to arrange them so that they will be as nearl}' independent as possible. 

 For each district there is a conmiissioner who has direct charge of the 

 distribution of water Avithin his district, and for each division there is 

 a superintendent who has general supervision of the work of the com- 

 missioners and decides all questions between districts where a stream 

 and its tributaries extend into more than one district. 



O 



