KECEXT IRRIGATION LEGISLATION. 403 



provision lias been practically universal throughout the arid region. 

 It had two great defects wliich made it a practical failure: (1) The 

 actual diversion and use of water was necessary to the perfecting of a 

 right, and this system provided no means of determining and record- 

 ing whether the posting and filing of a notice was followed by con- 

 struction of works and use of water. (2) The records of claims to a 

 single stream might be scattered through a number of counties, 

 making it difficult for anyone to determine what claims had been 

 filed. The failure of this system necessitated the more or less elabo- 

 rate provisions for adjudications just described. The present laws 

 on this subject, where the old system has been abolished, have for 

 their j)urpose the correction of the defects just mentioned — such 

 supervision of the acquirement of rights as will define them as they 

 arc^ acquired, and the recording of all rights in one place. 



In this field, as in that of adjudication, Wyoming was the pioneer, 

 and the laws of the other States which have provided for supervision 

 of the acquirement of rights follow the Wyoming law in its principal 

 features. This law provides that anj^ party wishing to acquire the 

 right to divert water from any stream of the State must apply to the 

 state engineer and secure a permit before beginning work, and pro- 

 vides for the submission of proof of having carried out the plans 

 contained in the application and for the issuance of a certificate of 

 right by the engineer. Up to 1907 similar laws had been adopted in 

 Nebraska, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and 

 Oklahoma, while Colorado provided for the filing of plans with the 

 state engineer and for their approval by the engineer, but had not 

 provided for any proof of the plans having been carried out. Since 

 1905 laws similar to that of Wyoming have been adopted in New 

 Mexico and Oregon, making ten of the seventeen States and Territo- 

 ries containing arid lands which have a complete supervision of the 

 acquirement of rights. 



Of the others, Montana (laws of 1907) has provided for supervision 

 of the acquirement of rights from streams the rights to water from 

 which have been adjudicated, but leaves rights from unadjudicated 

 streams to be acquired by posting and filing notices and construction 

 of works and use of water. Any party wishing to appropriate water 

 from an adjudicated stream is to post and file a notice giving the 

 volume of water to be taken, the purpose for which it is to be used, 

 the place of u.se, the name of the stream, the name of the appropriator, 

 and the date. No rights can be acquired in excess of the carrying 

 capacity of the works built or the needs for some useful or l)eneficial 

 piH'pose. Within forty days after the works are completed the owner 

 nuist file with the clerk of the district court in the county where the 

 appropriation is to be made an application to have the ditch measured 

 and its capacity determined. This application is to contain a sworn 



