40 LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
to the individual until the proper survey of the same is made and the plat 
prepared for record. With this precaution, which the Government already 
invariably takes in disposing of its lands, no fear of uncertainty of identi- 
fication need be entertained. 
WATER RIGHTS. 
In each of the suggested bills there is a clause providing that, with 
certain restrictions, the right to the water necessary to irrigate any tract of 
land shall inhere in the land itself from the date of the organization of the 
district. The object of this is to give settlers on pasturage or irrigation 
farms the assurance that their lands shall not be made worthless by taking 
away the water to other lands by persons settling subsequently in adjacent 
portions of the country. The men of small means who under the theory 
of the bill are to receive its benefits will need a few years in which to con- 
struct the necessary waterways and bring their lands under cultivation. 
On the other hand, they should not be permitted to acquire rights to water 
without using the same. The construction of the waterways necessary to 
actual irrigation by the land owners may be considered as a sufficient 
guarantee that the waters will subsequently be used 
The general subject of water rights is one of great importance. In 
many places in the Arid Region irrigation companies are organized who 
obtain vested rights in the waters they control, and consequently the rights 
to such waters do not inhere in any particular tracts of land. 
When the area to which it is possible to take the water of any given 
stream is much greater than the stream is competent to serve, if the land 
titles and water rights are severed, the owner of any tract of land is at 
the mercy of the owner of the water right. In general, the lands greatly 
exceed the capacities of the streams. Thus the lands have no value without 
water. If the water rights fall into the hands of irrigating companies and 
the lands into the hands of individual farmers, the farmers then will be 
dependent upon the stock companiés, and eventually the monopoly of water 
rights will be an intolerable burden to the people. 
The magnitude of the interests involved must not be overlooked. All 
the present and future agriculture of more than four-tenths of the area of 
