44 THE IRRIGAT1 ON A GE. 



Tributaries,'' lays down the essentials of a working code of irrigation 

 law: They are: 



First. An accessible and trustworthy record of filings on the 

 streams. 



Second. A clear definition of water rights and a simple orderly 

 and inexpensive procedure for their determination. 



Third. Some means of dividing streams in times of scarcity in 

 order that the holders of prior rights may be protected. 



The Wyoming law embodies all these essentials, and is a model 

 well worthy of initiation. 



In 1895, the Legislature of Nebraska enacted an irrigation law 

 which embodied as much of the Wyoming practice as a constitution 

 that the state had outgrown would permit. We do not think of it as 

 any improvement on the Wyoming law, but it is accepted as the best 

 that can be done till further amendment to the constitution can be se- 

 cured. 



The four years that have elapsed since its adoption has enabled 

 our State Board to clear away the useless rubbish of excessive and 

 abandoned claims and speculative filings that had accumulated under 

 the old law. The adjudications of the Board are generally accepted. 

 Though ample provision is made for appeals from the findings of the 

 Board to the Districts Courts, there are practically no appeals. 



Litigation concerning water rights which under the old law 

 threatened to monopolize the whole time of the courts and consume 

 the energy and capital of the irrigator, has practically ceased. 



With proper control, the elements of uncertainty concerning 

 rights to water are largely eliminated. But there is a set of condi- 

 tions which has caused more serious misapprehension and distrust in 

 many localities for which state control furnishes no adequate remedy. 



As with the Counties, state boundaries often divide drainage 

 areas. An interstate stream, without interstate or national control 

 sufficiently broad to protect the right of every genuine appropriator 

 and user of water, is a menace to the peace and prosperity of the 

 the states and communities involved. 



Every man who contemplates the digging of a ditch from such a 

 river or the purchase of a water right, asks himself what protection 

 he can be assured as against appropriators in other states as well as 

 his own. As things are now; there is none. 



The Mitchell Canal takes its waters from the North Platte in Wy- 

 oming to water lands in Nebrasda. Wyoming grants them no right 

 and they made no claim to Nebraska waters. In fact, they do not ap- 

 pear on our records at all. Their priority is such that they are entit- 

 led to take water among the first, so no question has arisen as to 

 earlier priorities in Nebraska having superior rights. A large part 

 of the normal flow of the North Platte River has now been appropri 

 ated, but it is now proposed to enlarge and extend the ditch to cover 



