86 THEIR1UGAT10N AGE. 



appropriate water from a public stream and then leave them to quarrel 

 among themselves as to each man's share. Such a course is not only 

 unbusinesslike, it is unjust to those whose industry has transformed 

 the desert into grain fields. Water is too valuable for any Western 

 State to give away without regard to quality and without exercising 

 its perogatives of supervision and control. State supervision and 

 control though form the double-headed bug-a-boo of Western people. 

 Yet it is possible to train this monster to become the friend of the 

 irrigator. 



The four forest reserves of Montana aggregate an area of over five 

 million acres. The work of the supervisors and forest managers did 

 not begin until August of 1898, and Mr. Collins whom I see before me 

 is authority for the statement that in four months of that season, this 

 small force had extinguished some sixty small fires and prevented the 

 occurrence of a single running fire within the limits of the reserves. 

 This much for the National supervision of forest reserves and if each 

 State would police the streams in as effectual a manner, the irrigator 

 iar down in the valley might feel assured that he would get his due 

 allowance of the water derived from the snow that lies deep in the 

 forest reserves. 



For thirty-five years the farmers of Montana have been diverting 

 water from the public streams with little or no knowledge of the act- 

 ual amount diverted or of the volume left in the natural channels. In 

 many instances they ^have begun with small ditches, which were in- 

 creased as more land was reclaimed. During all this time that State 

 has made no effort to determine its appropriated and unappropriated 

 water supply. Is it not time we were taking stock':' The merchant 

 keeps tab on the number of yards in the roll of carpeting. When a 

 portion is sold, the number of yards remaining is written on the tag. 

 It is time the State had a tag on its streams. In scores of instances 

 more appropriations have been granted and more ditches constructed 

 than there is water in the stream to fill. If disputes and litigation 

 arise, as the inevitable result of attempting to dispose of much more 

 than the total flow, the State is directly responsible. It will not do to 

 scatter permits to divert water, like permits from the State capitol 

 and allow grab- rule to dominate. No better system could be devised 

 to foster litigation. When the summer flow of a stream is all appro- 

 priated and utilized the State through its proper officer should an- 

 nounce that fact, in order to protect priority owners and to show sub- 

 sequent takers the limitations of their rights. The placing of a mark 

 at different points of a stream to indicate the division line between the 

 legal utilized flow and the surplus flow, would keep many an irrigator 

 out of court and save his money for a nobler purpose. 



There is an urgent necessity in most of the Western States today 

 for more stringent regulations governing the appropriation and di- 

 version of water. Such regulations cannot well be too strict. For the 



