IRRIGATION IN MINNESOTA. 315 



lift is fifteen feet or less. Of all the northern states not reckoned in 

 the irrigation belt, Minnesota offers the greatest field for irrigation. 

 An experiment stage must be passed that we may learn in a practi- 

 cal way how to irrigate and what crops to grow on irrigated lands 

 and how to cultivate them. The experiment station can do something 

 at conducting formal plot experiments and has already started 

 experiments w^ith both garden and field crops at University Farm. 

 We can also keep in touch with practical operations within the state 

 and make a study of the principles of irrigation and their applica- 

 tion in other states and countries. But for irrigation to succeed.the 

 first stage must be begun and private enterprise must work out the 

 practical knowledge as suited to Minnesota conditions by varied 

 and even large enterprises. It may be proper to remark that it is 

 very easy in irrigation as in other lines of business to squander 

 money and time in irrigation where conditions are unfavorable. 



The question naturally arises as to whether there is anything 

 w^hich can be done by the state besides experimenting and teaching 

 to aid in developing our irrigation water values. Those states in 

 which irrigation is practiced have found that laws giving rights to 

 owners of ditches are not only advantageous to the individual but 

 really necessary for the proper development of the latent forces of 

 the state. To go to large expense for great systems of canals and 

 ditches, individuals, co-operative associations of farmers or corpor- 

 ations must have means of securing water rights with assurance 

 that these will be protected by the state. Our patent laws giving 

 men for a time a monopoly of their own inventions have developed 

 American genius in mechanics beyond that found in any other 

 country. They havekept our people ahead with such an abundance, 

 variety and wonderfull}' efficient lot of mechanical appliances that 

 production is possible in competition with the cheapest labor on 

 earth. To encourage experimenting, and I trust even large devel- 

 opment in irrigation, we need a law, as President Underwood in his 

 annual address to this society has recommended, which shall recog- 

 nize that the greatest value for water is its use on land. This law 

 should insure priority of right to the person or persons making the 

 first ditches, that those later on making ditches above them be not 

 allowed to consume all the water, thus destroying the value of the 

 improvements first made. Should it ever become necessary, the 

 state should even find some practical way of compensating mill dam 

 owners for anj^ loss of power resulting frotn the removal of water 

 from the stream above them by means of irrigation ditches. A right 

 to acquire a permanent claim to the water for irrigation purposes 

 is the first and great essential to an irrigation law. In addition 

 there should be provisions under which the water could be dis- 

 tributed to the lands of the various members of a corporation, to 

 the owners of lands in a legallj' organized irrigation district under 

 state, county or township supervision, and other minor features to 

 facilitate the distribution of water rights owned in common or for 

 the sale and purchase of water rights and facilities. 



It may be thought that I give too much prominence to this mat- 

 ter. I have only to say that the observation of several years in this 



