316 WATER MONOPOLY AND IRRIGATION. 



interests can be avoided or harmonized. The rights of water 

 which have given so much trouble in other countries, where 

 the laws regulating these rights have grown up with their 

 system of irrigation, and, as history teaches us, have often 

 been made for the benefit of private parties or particular dis 

 tricts of country, can be established beforehand, if not for all 

 time, at least, on the principle of &quot;the greatest good for the 

 greatest number.&quot; 



12. That, while the irrigation of these plains would prob 

 ably be effected in the cheapest and most thorough manner by 

 a comprehensive system of canals, such as we have sketched, 

 we by no means recommend that all irrigation should await the 

 development of such a system. &quot;We are taught, by the experi 

 ence of other countries, to expect such development to be the 

 work of many years. In the mean time, ten or twenty or fifty 

 farmers having lands so situated as to be irrigable from a 

 neighboring stream, may desire to construct the works neces 

 sary for that purpose, to be operated for their benefit, or they 

 may desire to enter into an agreement with other parties, who 

 shall build the required works. In either case, if the proposed 

 works do not conflict with the general system of irrigation, we 

 believe that such an enterprise should be permitted and en 

 couraged by the State. 



13. As a matter of public policy, it is desirable that the 

 land and water should be joined together, never to be cut 

 asunder; that the farmers should enjoy in perpetuity the use of 

 the water necessary for the irrigation of their respective lands; 

 that when the land is sold, the right to water shall also be sold 

 with it, and that neither should be sold separately. 



14. That the parties chiefly benefited by irrigation are the 

 farmers or land-owners. That there is every reason to believe 

 that the value of land in the driest districts will be appreciated 

 many fold; that it results from this that the lands should, as far 

 as possible, pay for the construction of the necessary works. 



15. That the State and counties will be directly benefited by 

 the appreciation of land, and by the increase of wealth in their 

 revenues from taxation. That, consequently, it may be good 

 policy for them to aid such enterprises. 



16. That there is this difficulty in the way of the proposi 

 tion that the lands shall pay for the canals, namely, that in 

 many places the lands at present are not worth more than $5 



