148 



AGRICULTURE. 



NOMINAL HORSE-POWER REQUIRED FOR THE 

 DISCHARGE OF GIVEN QUANTITIES OF WATER 

 WITH LIFTS OF 10 AND 20 FEET. (Scott.) 



IRRIGATION. (Yearbook U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 



A water right is the right or privilege of using water for 

 irrigating purposes, either in a definite quantity or upon a 

 prescribed area of land, such right or privilege being cus- 

 tomarily acquired either by priority of use or by purchase. 

 In many parts of the arid region a water right is an exceed- 

 ingly valuable property. The average value of the water 

 rights of the entire arid region, as determined by the cen- 

 sus of 1890, was $26 per acre, and there are fruit-growing 

 districts in California where water rights have been sold at 

 as high as $1500 per miner's inch, or from |ioo to 

 $500 per acre, according to the amount used on any given 

 area of land. 



The duty of tvater is the extent of the service it will per- 

 form when used for irrigating purposes, that is, the num- 

 ber of acres a given quantity of water will adequately irri- 

 gate under ordinary circumstances. This is usually from 

 100 to 200 acres for each second-foot. Where water is 

 abundant the duty has been known to be as low as 50 

 acres, and where very scarce as high as 500 acres, to the 

 second-foot. 



