RECENT IRRIGATION LEGISLATION. 407 



Some of the States liaving older laws covering the distribution of 

 water have amended these recently. A law adopted in 1909 in Idaho 

 provides for the division of the State into districts on drainage lines, 

 and for an election in each of these districts on the first Monday in 

 March of each year, at which the holders of adjudicated rights to 

 water are to elect water masters and fix their pay, not to exceed S4 

 per day. If water masters are not elected the water commissioners 

 may appoint them. Water masters are to distribute water in accord- 

 ance with adjudicated rights, and unadjutlicated rights are to be 

 considered subsequent to all adjudicated rights. Water masters 

 are not to begin work until called upon by two or more persons having 

 rights to water. The owner of stored water may use the pubhc 

 streams to deliver this water. He .shall notify the state engineer 

 of the date and amount of water to be run, and the parties to whom 

 it is to be delivered. The engineer is to appoint one or more deputies 

 to attend to this delivery, and set the head gates of all ditches so as 

 to allow the water to go to the parties entitled to it. Anyone chang- 

 ing a head gate fixed by such deputy is guilty of a misdemeanor and 

 is liable to a fine of not less than S50 nor more than S2.50, or imprison- 

 ment for thirty days to six months. Washington, in 1907, adopted a 

 similar provision, except that in that State, in which there is no state 

 engineer, notice of the intention to run stored water in a stream is to 

 be sent to the superior court of the county in which water is ''stored, 

 carried, or used," and the court is to appoint a commissioner to 

 attend to delivery, to be paid not exceeding $7 per day, by the county 

 in which the work is done. 



In 1907 AVyoming amended its law and gave water commissioners 

 authority to regulate the distribution of water from partnership 

 ditches for which rights have been adjudicated. Whenever a head 

 sate or controlling work has been set bv a water commissioner he is 

 to put a notice of that fact on the gate. Ditch owners are required 

 to put in head gates and measuring devices under penalty of having 

 the water shut off. Reservoir owners are to put in measuring 

 devices above and below reservoirs, and in case of refusal the water 

 commissioner is to open the outlet of the reservoir and leave it open 

 until the devices are put in. 



TRANSFEKS. 



Until the hist few years the prevailing rule regarding water rights in 

 the arid States has been that rights might be transferred from one 

 tract of land to another if holders of other rights were not injured 

 by the transfers." Until the rendering of the decision just cited the 



a See Johnston v. Little Horse Creek Irrigation Company (Wyo.), 79 Par., 22, in 

 which the supreme court of Wyoming cites th;' authorities on this subject. 



