338 THE IRRIGA T10N A GE. 



works and that no one can tap the line at pleasure. He cari get water 

 only as it is turned out to him on certain days and in certain heads 

 and for certain lengths of time. It is impossible to operate works any 

 other way unless made of enormous size. Every consumer knows 

 that the determination of these questions must rest with the company. 

 For any one to sec up his will against them would be like rebelling 

 against a government. Anarchy of a kind most fatal to all crops 

 would be the sure result. The man who tries to get water without 

 taking a contract by taking advantage of the law is therefore not only 

 in the power of the company, but every one who has had sense enough 

 to get a contract is interested in beating him. He has no equity on 

 his side, for every one knows that the annual rates rarely amount to 

 more than enough for good maintainance and that one who tries to 

 get water for the rates only is trying to get it for much less than it 

 cost. They know that such a principle, if generally applied, means 

 the death of all enterprise in building any new irrigation works. 

 Hence they are interested in sustaining the water right, while almost 

 every question of importance if decided this year, such as the quantity 

 of water one is to have, may be fought over anew next year against 

 the man who tries to irrigate without one. 



The man with a contract stands in a vastly different position. The 

 difference is well worth paying for. This is why nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine out of a thousand pay it without any question of the ex- 

 istence of such a legal thing as a "water-right." For this reason 

 every man of sense will always want a contract and will refuse to 

 plant trees or even alfalfa under a ditch that does not give him one. 

 His rights under anything else are entirely too vague and slippery. 

 With a contract the amount of water to which one is entitled is speci- 

 fied, a matter of the utmost importance. He is put on the list of con- 

 sumers and the company looks after him with care. It saves so much 

 water for him and accommodates him in every way possible, consist- 

 ently with the needs of other consumers. It cannot, with safety to 

 other consumers, specify in advance the days on which he is to have 

 water, the size, or duration of the irrigating heads he is to have, 

 but as the company has bound itself to furnish him so much water in 

 a year it has no interest in treating him any differently from any other 

 consumers mark this point well and it accommodates him to the ut- 

 most consistently with the rights of others. In case of a shortage 

 from an unusual season the same rules are applied and he stands with 

 the rest of the consumers. He therefore knows almost to a certainty 

 what he is to have and can tell very nearly when he is to have it if he 

 gets in his order in time. He therefore knows what he can plant and 

 what he can do with it and can figure years ahead on everything but 

 an unusual season. And even then he knows he will get his share 

 which will be enough to make something of a crop even though short, 

 while he is in no possible danger of losing anything for want of water. 

 The dangers of any other system are too great for any one to invest 

 either time or money in. Almost any one can figure them out but we 

 will glance at some of them in the next article. 



