16 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



which represents the same right and is really a deed of a part interest, 

 the title being in the company but in trust for the holders of the stock. 

 The stock may be made subject to conditions as well as a deed for no 

 one is obliged to take it. And there is no more reasonable condition 

 than contributing equally toward the expense. 



As the land owner's company is now the only form of company 

 that capital can wisely consider and as money enough can still be 

 made through that form of company where properly handled there is 

 no occasion for being alarmed at the condition of the law. But as it 

 is I should not be at all afraid to buy and improve under a common 

 company everything else being equal. Whatever the effect of the law 

 may be in theory the company will take good care of the man who 

 has paid what the water is honestly worth and will not postpone him 

 to one who wants something for nothing when he knows that it would 

 ruin the company if all did the same. The ditch tender and the sec- 

 retary can easily make such an irrigator wish he had never been born 

 and he could never prove where he was hit. I would want no better 

 fun than to supply the water to a few such customers for a season and 

 I would not get the company into any lawsuits either. The last one 

 of them would buy a contract in a year or two. For the fact that ir- 

 rigation works cannot be tapped at will by any one, as in the city 

 works, but the water must be taken in blocks, the size and continuance 

 and times of taking of which must be under the control of the com- 

 pany, makes the company master of the situation and it has the sym- 

 pathy and support of every man who is irrigating under a contract. 

 With such backing and such, control of the facts in the hands of the 

 company the man who wants water for less than it cost will, find a mere 

 legal right a mighty poor support for trees or alfalfa, especially in a 

 severe hot spell. 



