36 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



STATE OF MONTANA. ) 



CODNTY OF Gallatin. S 



luiving first been duly sworn, depose and say that he 



of lawful age and the appropriator and claimant of the water and 



water right mentioned in tlie foregoing Notice and Statement of appropriation and 



claim, and tlie person. . .whose name subscril)ed thereto as the appropriator. .. 



and claimant — ; that lie know — the contents of said Notice and Statement 



foregoing, and tliat the matters and things tlierein stated are true. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this day of A. D., 189 



Under the laws of Montana, water cannot be taken tip solelj-- as a 

 speculation but shottld be kept in nse each year, nor will the courts 

 permit a man to hold an amount of water largely in excess of his 

 own requirements should other parties on the stream need the 

 water, even though he hold a prior right. 



Water rights date by prioritj^ that is to say, first claimant, having 

 a use for all water claimed under his right, i. e. so many inches, has 

 the right to divert such an amount of water from the stream, through 

 his ditches, onto his land; the second claimant proceeds in like 

 manner, and so on down to the last man filing notice. 



It is very ctistomary, where water is taketi a long distance and from 

 streams of magnitude, for two or more farmers to join and construct 

 a partnership ditch, the rights of each partner being defined; where 

 a large number of owners are interested, it is the custom to appoint 

 one whose dtity it is to apportion to each man his lawful share of 

 water. 



Unless the ground over which the ditch passes is much broken in 

 contour, it is not customary to call into use the services of a civil 

 engineer, but the location of the ditch is established by the use of a 

 triangle and plumb bob. 



Ditches carrying from 50 to 100 inches of water, (the usual size of 

 'which is from H to -i feet in width, and 12 to 18 inches in depth) should 

 have a fall of from % to I4 of an inch per rod. 



By means of a level or a good barometer, it is easily discovered 

 how far up stream one must go to take out the ditch. Suppose the 

 tract of land to be watered Ijes 100 feet above the surface of the 

 stream frotn which the water must come and that the natural fall 

 of the stream be 50 feet per mile, a ditch to conduct the water, or to 

 place it on a level with the land to be watered, shotild be two miles 

 in length; and in addition to this, an allowance must be made of 

 from 1/8 to 14 inch per rod for the distance between the point of di- 

 verting the water from the stream and the point of delivering, trav- 

 ersed by the ditch. 



If 1^4 inch be the desired fall to the ditch, a triangle that will 

 measure Yz rod on each of its equilateral sides should have a strip 

 or block VA of an inch thick nailed to the bottom and at the extreme 

 end of the base of the triangle, a plumb bob being suspentled to the 

 apex by a cord long enough to allow the bob to swing down and 

 over the center of the triangle. Placing the base of the triangle (the 

 one to which the |,^ of an inch block is fastened) on the level of the 

 water, a stake is driven on which the Vs o^ ^" inch lift is placed, and 

 this stake driven into the earth until the plumb indicates the tri- 

 angle to be level. The triangle is then moved onto the stake just 

 driven, and another stake set in the ground, on which the % of an 

 inch lift is placed, and so on, until a series of stakes be driven that 



