office of experiment stations. 225 



Irrigation Investigations. 



The irrigation investigations conducted under the direction of this 

 Office have pursued tlie same general lines as heretofore, the work 

 having been extended to meet the growing demand for information 

 on this subject as far as the appropriation of $50,000 would permit. 

 The field office at Cheyenne has been maintained and investigations 

 conducted from that point, the Office at Washington attending to the 

 business which must necessarily be performed in the Department 

 connected with the supervision of expenditures, the purcliase of 

 apparatus and supplies, the preparation of bulletins and reports for 

 publication, and the distribution of these publications. As heretofore, 

 the irrigation investigations have been in charge of Prof. Elwood 

 Mead. 



COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES. 



As far as practicable arrangements have been made to cooperate with 

 other agencies engaged in the study of irrigation questions. These 

 cooperative efforts include the agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations of California, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, 

 Wyoming, Nebraska, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico in the arid 

 region, and Wisconsin, Missouri, North Dakota, and New Jersey in 

 the humid region. The different State irrigation offices are also being 

 aided in the study of questions for whicli the States do not provide 

 sufficient means. The cooperation with the State engineers' offices 

 includes Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, all of the 

 arid States in which such offices have been established. 



IRRIGATION LAWS. 



In accordance with the terms of the act creating this investigation, 

 it has been continued to follow two distinct lines, (1) the stud}^ of 

 laws and institutions of the different States relating to the ownership 

 and distribution of the public water supplies, and (2) to assist the 

 irrigators under ditches already built and the managers of the canals 

 which supply the farms now irrigated in the improvement of methods 

 of distributing and using water in order that the land now cultivated 

 by irrigation may be rendered more valuable, the controversies over 

 water rights lessened, and its economical use promoted. 



Under the first division the investigation began by a study of the 

 laws and customs governing the ownersliip and use of a single stream. 

 It has been found desirable to modify this plan by taking up in turn 

 the laws governing rights to water in a single State, as in this waj'- 

 the people of that State can better understand the merits and defects 

 of the irrigation laws now in force and the measures necessary to 

 avert the evils which have arisen under these laws or to promote 

 development by their modification. The report on irrigation in Cali- 

 fornia (see p. 230) is the first of these special studies of State laws. 

 The reports of the eight experts engaged in this investigation give 

 the most exhaustive description of irrigation conditions yet i)ublished 

 of any State. In addition, it contains a general review of the agricul- 

 tural situation and x^ossibilities of California, written by the expert in 

 charge, based on his personal studies. A similar investigation is now 

 being carried on in Utah. It will include a report on Weber River 

 by Prof. J. D. Stannard, assistant in irrigation investigations; on 



AGR 1901 15 



