THE IRRIGATION AGE. 43 



Contrast this with the adjudications of a Court as in Colorado, 

 where a judge without the technical knowledge necessary for the con- 

 sideration of the questions involved and unfamiliar with all the local 

 conditions and customs, with no means of securing unprejudiced in- 

 formation, sits to hear contradictory testimony and make decrees, 

 while other judges perhaps better mahap worse equipped for this duty 

 are making decrees on the same stream in accordance with as many 

 different principles or precedents as there are judges. In Colorado, 

 each new decision is one more complication. In Wyoming, the adju- 

 dications settle something and tend to simplify the problem of distri- 

 bution. 



Litigation over water claims has practically ceased in Wyoming, 

 while in Colorado no one expects to see the end of the litigation so 

 long as the present system prevails. 



The law provides: 



Third : A well equipped and ample administrative force for the 

 distribution of the water, consisting of the State Engineer, the Super- 

 intendents of the Divisions and the Subordinate District Commission- 

 ers. 



The Commissioner in his district under the direction and guid- 

 ance of the Superintendent and State Engineer, clothed with full 

 power to enforce the decision of the Board. Thus each claimant is 

 assured of adequate protection in his right. 



This law provides: 



Fourth: That no new appropriation shall be made from any stream 

 until a definite aud complete statement of what is proposed has been 

 submitted to the State Engineer and approved by him, and each ap- 

 propriation is considered in relation to its possible effects on the prior 

 appropriations. 



This to prevent the curtailment of the rights of the older claim- 

 ant by over appropriation. This is not an imaginary danger. When 

 there was no supervision in Nebraska, on a stream in which the total 

 flow during the irrigating season is less than 30 cu. ft. per second, ap- 

 propriations continued to be made long after the possible flow was ex- 

 hausted and until canals were actually constructed covering over 

 12 000 acres of irrigable land. 



The method of distribution in Wyoming is modeled on the same 

 plan as that of Colorado from which it is likely copied, but the prac- 

 tice is much simplified by the superior method of adjudication. In 

 Colorado, the State Engineer may distribute ihe water of the same 

 stream in accordance with as many different and conflicting decrees 

 as there are judges rendering the decrees. In Wyoming, one princi- 

 ple guides throughout. 



Elwood Mead, for many years State Engineer of Wyoming, now 

 Irrigation Expert for the U. S. Geological Department, in a bulletin 

 issued last year entitled "Water Rights on the Missouri Eiver and its 



